This isn't very reassuring. Sounds like the same environment the new PB got pushed through in. A couple of saber savvy testers in an echo chamber pushing out an idea that non saber savvy testers seemed to (reluctantly?) agree with, and now we're in a build where dueling is considered to be at an all time low to most of the playerbase (NA at least, idk about European) outside of theoretical echo chamber. Hopefully these changes are better than the last ones the majority ruled to push through. I'm curious what you voted for and against in the -last- series of changes Supa.
Agent wasn't exaggerating when he said there's only 1 experienced saberist leading the ideas and changes to the saber system. Most of the other experienced saberists that thankfully contributed to beta quit over time when they all realized their input was realistically insignificant compared to what a developer wanted to put into the game. I've seen first hand that there is a concerning lack of checks and balances / second opinions that go on in the beta environment and I think it has a very strong correlation to how the saber system was allowed to somehow
decline in popularity.
I can only shrug here. It will never be reassuring for anyone, because we're aiming for some holy grail of a system that will give the most "fun" and at the same time "consistent" experience. Even if you were the one making changes, you might soon realize that you aren't happy with them at all yourself. And we're also limited by the game. At any rate it's not like any changes would ever happen if somehow everyone's opinion in the community could veto them.
I also dislike the current public saber system at the very least because it's deprecated in terms of visual feedback. However, that doesn't stop many new/semi-new players who both did and didn't experience previous versions from liking it; and even veterans who have seen a larger variety of builds - agent likes it. Let's not think too much of our opinions just because "we've been very active in some builds and they were great" and new builds are bad and an excuse to whine, while actually the most important reason why we quit is because we're older, had enough fun time with our respective groups/clans/communities when we were teens, and went back to RL matters. Let's be seriously honest, even if RC1 was your holy grail, and next build was a reversion to RC1, you still wouldn't come and play mb2 remotely as much as 7 years ago, because other reasons.
In any case "making changes in an echo chamber" is how it works, it's not like there is any other way. If you don't like it, it's up to you to start being more active and make sure you are having an influence. Being almost inactive and blaming active people for doing things you don't like will pretty much always result in you being mostly ignored.
