This is not necessarily true though, as mis-predicting Jirachi's set or getting confusion haxed could easily lead to one losing a pokemon (or more), which is the same price as losing a prediction match against Mixmence. How is that a different price?
What's the worst that happens if you predict wrong against Jirachi? It subs as you use will-o-wisp? It uses Calm Mind as you switch Tyranitar out? You thought it was scarfed but it uses Grass Knot on your Swampert? Note that in these situations, Jirachi must use the surprise value of its set in order to get a KO or free turn. That's about all Jirachi has - surprise value. It lacks the raw power to go along with its versatility. So if the Jirachi user guesses wrong, there will likely be a penalty (or at least there will be a minimal gain). Of course, you can also "predict" by making a non-obvious move (e.g. tpunch on their tyranitar as they switch to gyarados), but since almost every Pokemon is capable of doing that it is certainly not a criteria towards banning any Pokemon.
Salamence, also has high versatility, but has complete coverage - with every move 100 base power or higher - with only three moves. (The extra moveslot is quite significant, with options such as Dragon Dance and Roost!) Jirachi must run some stupid shit like Psychic/Fire Punch/HP Ground or Fighting (OR ROCK SMASH!!!!) to get complete coverage. The raw power is a huge boost for Salamence here, since it is much easier to create situations in which it cannot possibly guess wrong (most likely, to score a KO with Draco Meteor). And even if Salamence guesses wrong, if the opponent switched then the switched-in Pokemon will likely take a huge amount of damage, and risks being KO'd if it stays in.
You could also argue that Jirachi's flinch hax with Iron Head allows it to unfairly score KOs. This is certainly true, but Iron Head (especially used consecutively) is so unreliable that it would hardly be comparable to Salamence even if it "guessed right" only 1/3 of the time (for example, if it must choose between Draco Meteor, Fire Blast, or Earthquake/Brick Break); and I think it is fair to say that a good Salamence player will can use it in situations with better odds than that. The chance to flinch even three times in a row is only about 20%...and while this 20% will certainly get you some KO's that you "shouldn't" get, flinch hax it is really only useful for finishing off a low health opponent, or scoring a two or three hit KO with neutral damage (I'm fairly certain you wouldn't argue that it is a huge problem for the metagame that Jirachi has like a 1/1000 chance of flinching swampert to death). Looking at the situation a different way, then, Iron Head is similar to if Jirachi had a higher base power move without a chance to flinch. Even though Jirachi may score some extra damage sometimes, the damage it will deal in total likely will not be more than if Jirachi had higher base attack and was using a stronger base power move. It is also worth noting that Steel is a really bad attacking type.
To conclude here:
Although Jirachi can match Salamence in versatility, it needs to use surprise value of its different sets to do it; Salamence can create a guessing game with only three moveslots. Additionally, Jirachi lacks the raw power of Salamence, and therefore has difficulty creating situations in which it "cannot lose"; Salamence can do this easily with high base power attacks, a superior attacking type, and higher attacking stats.
Finally, although the luck that Jirachi's Iron Head throws into the metagame is hardly desirable, it does not generally create a higher than normal damage output in comparison with damage done by the game's common physical attacks.
It's also worth noting that Salamence having Dragon Dance is a huge plus; I haven't mentioned it much in my arguments, but suffice it to say that Jirachi would probably be banned too if it had Dragon Dance. Huuuggeee threat.
Machamp's confusion hax can easily pick up free turns, and creating free turns is the biggest reason we banned wob (though obviously machamp is much less capable of taking advantage of these free turns, but it can still throw up substitutes or just go for the kill).
Machamp's low speed still makes it difficult to score more than a single KO, even if you play it perfectly. And it certainly poses no threat of sweeping. Dynamicpunch is annoying, but not enough to put it even close to on par with Salamence.
Furthermore, luck from prediction wars is frankly not as bad for the metagame as luck from hax. Prediction wars at least allow you some action and ability to influence the result. Hax is totally out of your hands. This is a key difference.
A "guessing game" has nothing to do with prediction; if you are guessing then you are obviously not predicting at all. This is how I think of it: "Prediction" really just refers to predicting the odds that your opponent will do something / have a certain pokemon or item or attack; guessing is when you know the odds and are trying to beat them (so a guess is similar to rolling a die). "Hax" refers to when the odds from guessing,
but not from prediction, do not go in your favor - after all, it would seems silly to complain that your Machamp's turn 1 payback didn't hit a Rotom, since it was your own mismanagement of probabilities that did not return a favorable result. By contrast, it is common to mention hax if a Jirachi causes flinching twice and 3HKOs your Blissey. You know that the odds of not returning a favorable result are substantial in both cases, yet for some reason players like to complain when they get a poor dice roll. It sucks, but Pokemon is a game of probability management. The best players are those that can consistently manage the probabilities of any given event happening. So to get back to the snippet I just quoted, saying that hax is "out of your hands" but prediction is not is silly. They are simply different kinds of probabilities to be managed - one of which you know the odds of exactly, and one of which has odds you must estimate.
To swing this back around to Salamence, as soon as Salamence comes out you must make a prediction (assume what set/item/nature it is using). If it comes in a subsequent time you will likely be forced to guess what move it will use. While this is the same functionality as most other Pokemon, Salamence's versatility and power make it likely that there will be know always-safe plays the next time it comes in. Even with Jirachi, once you see one move from the set and what item it has (or doesn't have) you will probably be able to determine a safe play. With Salamence, even if you have already learned the set and the move it is unlikely that you will have a safe play, even if your entire team is alive and well. In short, Salamence makes it difficult for even the best battler to play the odds correctly.
This is really the heart of the issue, and it explains why Salamence deserves to be banned but some "luck based" Pokemon do not. We are not trying to eliminate as much luck (i.e. probabilities to manage) as possible from the game, we are merely trying to keep luck at a reasonable level, since those conditions allow better players to flourish. In my opinion, Salamence provided unreasonable odds to competitive Pokemon players and therefore belongs in the uber tier.
If you do not like games of probability management then you should switch to chess. It can be pokemon-themed if you like associating it with a children's media franchise.
I think we're gonna have to just disagree about skymin; we're getting way off topic with it.
Your comment here is completely inconclusive, and also fails to answer the question of what benefits a council system brings that an open poll wouldn't.
I personally am in favor of a Council system, but rather I am only in favor because I prefer a faster result. If a fast open poll was possible, that would be fine with me.
If you feel otherwise, it is up to you and other members who think likewise to answer to all the uproar about disconnection between the majority of players and the decision making. I personally would be fine either way.
Oh, I didn't know you were asking about the benefits of a council system =P
The main advantage, as you point out, is speed. The previous process was comparatively slow and tedious.
The council also has a good chance of producing a good result (i.e. a more competitive metagame; see my previous post). A group of players who are both experienced and powerful battlers, have a good grasp of the theory behind the game, and are generally intelligent seems appropriate to make tiering decisions for the community. Part of the reason the council system was implemented (well really, the reason the paragraphs and battling criteria were implemented way back when, and the reason we kept a small number of qualified voters for the council) were to exclude unqualified voters. Say what you will about "smogon elitism" or whatever, but Joe Random with 45 posts and a 1050 CRE should not have the same impact on something as important as tiering decisions as players like MoP and reachzero do.
I don't want to offend anybody, but most Smogon users are unfortunately unqualified to vote on tiering issues (I won't get into why, but "look at some of the posts in this thread"). For this reason, an open poll is out of the question. Sorry, this isn't really a democracy =| though in all fairness, any player does have an opportunity to vote. A huge number of the people complaining about Salamence being uber did not even apply to be on the council.
Most if not all of the voters from the previous process were probably qualified to vote; the only reason to adopt the council system over that one is speed and ease (the old one was a lot more work).
So yeah to sum up tl;dr
