I support a test of Stealth Rock. It's going to be hard to say something that hasn't been said, but I'm going to give it a shot.
First off, I don't see why so many people are so against a TEST. Test and ban are not synonymous. What is being proposed is a test on the ban of SR to see how the metagame will evolve, and I wholeheartdly agree with this.
...but the metagame would be different without earthquake too and nobody thinks we should ban it.
Yes, that is true. The metagame might be different if we banned growl in some tiny, insignificant way, but that doesn't merit banning it. Earth Quake isn't broken. It doesn't hit every single Pokemon in the game. It isn't a guaranteed 50% damage BEFORE THE ENEMY CAN DO ANYTHING attack. What makes SR so ridiculous is the fact that it takes one turn to set up and can easily do over 100% damage to a team. Spikes takes three turns to be set up to do 25% damage. SR can do 50% in one turn. That's very substantial. Especially if you consider that fact that a Jolly, Timid, Hasty etc. sweeper can then pick off said pokemon with ease after getting hit with SR.
Fire/flying, Ice/Flying, Bug/Flying all take 50% Damage from this on the switch in.
Charizard, Moltres, Ho-oh, Articuno, Delibird, Butterfree, Scyther, Ledian, Beautifly, Masquerain, Ninjask, Mothim, Vespiquen and Yanmega all take 50% Damage.
Now, if we were to look at the list of every pokemon that took 25% damage, we'd be here a while. This move is what I would define as broken. It is gauranteed major damage for a lot of common threats. 25% is substantial in a meta game that is defined by OHKOs and 2HKOs. Add another 25% damage in, and many more sweeper threats arise.
11/14 Teams on the front page of the RMT forum held a stealth rock user. At least 4 of them were leads. This has become a stapple of our Meta Game, and I feel it's not for the best.
Now, some might argue that other entry hazards exist, and we haven't banned/proposed a ban on them. Now, this is due to the simple fact that they are not nearly as powerful a tool as SR. Spikes, as I said, require 3 turns to set up. That's three turns to get blown to bits. If your opponent ever allows 3 turns to set up Spikes, they should be shot. And, even then, the spikes can't do as much as Stealth Rock. Stealth rock has almost wiped away the need for spikes/toxic spikes on most teams now. when DP came out, Spikes/toxic spikes were prominent on a lot of teams, but now, i find myself facing it less and less, because SR is just so superior.
I think that the test on SR will help to show diversify our Metagame. It will allow some threats that recieved a boost from the Advanced generation to stop being owned so hard by SR. It will open up the playing field, and allow an extra slot to explore other options than SR.
In conclusion, I find it important that we remember we are not proposing an outright ban, but a test to see how the Metagame would fare without SR. The metagame will change. That is given. It will change if we remove any move, because there will be at least one person that was using it. However, in the case of stealth rock, if RMT is anything to go by, 71% of the teams exploit SR. It's going to have a significant effect on the game, and who knows, it might be for the better, or for the worse. Only a test will tell, but I feel we will miss out if we don't explore this opportunity.
EDIT:
forget it, i just hate it when people cant get around something so there only hope is to test it for a possibillity of banning it.
This is not trying to bitch about not being able to get around something. SR is taking over the meta game! It is fair to say you are at a distinct disadvantage without SR. I'm going to allude to another game real quick.
In Super Smash brothers Brawl, Metaknight has a glitch where he can stay in his cape and become invincible for as long as he wants. the move was banned because it is obvious that it is broken. It wasn't banned because people couldn't find a way to get around it, it was banned because it was broken. That's what a test of SR will help us figure out. Is SR broken? Or is it just a dominant force in our metagame.