Please don't shoot the messenger, just trying to cool things down a bit - after going through the last few pages, I
think Defiant & Mace were mostly arguing that being really good/skilful, or even perfectly knowledgeable, doesn't mean you'll
automatically provide good suggestions for balance or gameplay additions.
Take the example of pro players for competitive games : their feedback usually is the very best and that's undisputable, they'll immediately know when anything is amiss with the gameplay since their execution is optimal, but will they know how to fix it or figure out what's wrong to begin with, though ? Their takes on balance or gameplay issues can sometimes be completely off the mark, even though they're objectively the very best at the games they play.
I agree that feedback from the very best players is the most valuable more often than not, but there's also merit in listening to alternative outlooks from people with lower skill
in execution, when it comes to all the rest.
Giving out detailed and thorough feedback, being creative, having vision, observing the metagame, listening to other voices in the community, understanding the more mechanical and technical side of things - all of this needs an additional set of skills which only a somewhat mixed set of players can provide, imo. Getting something good out of that mixed bag is the really tricky part. Naturally, any beta tester absolutely needs to be perfectly knowledgeable and regularly play the game (duh), especially for such a quirky mod.. no point otherwise.
After 15+ years playing this and observing the forums from the sidelines, it's still pretty obvious that the feedback
and suggestions of some well-respected veterans has been continuously ignored for bad reasons, though - and some of them didn't make it all that easy either, to be perfectly fair.
It's a no brainer - really, please put egos aside and like, just listen to SeV about sabering before he's gone, as a painfully obvious example.
I just hope this won't kill my favourite mod, even though I suck at it. The first few pages were going too well
