Ok, some people knoe me as a Ghost user since Gen V, so I will try not to be biased here, even though seeing Annihilape and Flutter Mane being banned before (for good reasons for each one, I know, but I miss them haha)
Well, Spectrier should not be banned for some reasons I didn't see in the post above:
1- It HAS counters, I mean, every bulky mon that takes neutral to ghost can pretty much tank and knockout it without much problem, even with CM set (the same as mentioned above). Will-o-Wisp helps against physical ones, for sure, but the ones that can knockout it outspeeding it just ignore the fact I will try to burn them.
2- A lot of Dark types can counter it, and I'm not talking about Dark teams matchup. On Grass Meowscarada can kill it without problems, since Meowscara pretty much runs scarf, and scarf sets can't kill it with Draining Kiss unboosted from Grim Neigh. Ground has Ting-Lu, that can tank everything and hit back. Just saying some examples.
3- Draining Kiss has low base power, it's not like Dazzling Gleam or Moonblast coverage. Without Grim Neigh or CM/NP boost, it can't kill anything right away from 100% health, and almost anytime I could just use a boost move like one of these twos I mentioned, or sub, it would be killed anyway by a faster or bulky mon that can take Hex/SB and Draining Kiss. I know that one of the best things about this move is its healing factor, that synergises well with sub, but since it has low base power, it will not heal much without boosts.
4- Its sets are very predictable, I think scarf/specs sets and CM/NP sets like the mentioned above are its only viable sets, since it doesn't have a large movepool. Maybe on low ladder matches it can sweep teams with ease, but in higher tiers you must manage its use with caution, since it can be KOe'd easily.
These are my reasons to why it shouldn't be banned, but I would like to say a thing or two, that I will say and repeat, should not count as a reason to not ban it:
Ghost is this gen on Nat Dex Mono is very weak. While we have many more options, we lack support, we lack good role users like spinner/defogger, tanks, bulky supports and so on. And we can't access our strongest options, because they are too much overpower in this meta, like M-Gengar, Dragapult, Flutter Mane and Annihilape. With Spectrier banned, goes the whole type viability, since people that do not play Ghost thinks M-Sableye and Mimikyu are exceptional mons in this tier and they are just enough to play the type and manage our counters and bad MU, while other types has they strongest options at their fullest.
Well that's it. Some people asked me as a main ghost user for years to give my two cents here, even though I don't like to give my opinion to others. But I will be happy to people read this and discuss politely as I tried to be here.
Alright let's break this down point by point.
1. "counters" is pushing it. There are few and far between for this one. At most you have checks. But the problem is, with its set diversity, those checks can be messed up in some way. Let's take your definition of a bulky mon that can take a neutral hit. Heatran is a popular example. Okay, well, this can lose to a sub cm set and the heatran can no longer break sub (if you mention magma storm you are challenging rng very heavily considering its inconsistency and miss chance). Also, it seems that spectrier's bulk is underestimated. This thing still has a base 100 hp, which gets overlooked a lot, and while small, can affect what it lives and whatnot. Now the point you mention about faster physical attackers. What you neglected is the fact that they can't switch in safely for the most part. This means in order for you to revenge kill with a physical attacker, you'd probably have had to sac something to get that positioning. And this doesn't consider the fact it may have subbed on a slower passive mon, then got a kill, followed by another kill after as you try to remove sub. At the very least, it guarantees a kill in that scenario, meaning significant damage has been done at this point. There has to be consideration of how it has to be switched into carefully or answered while it usually can abuse the presence of slower passive mons at its own accord. Overall, what is neglected with this point is the fact that other interactions of the game have not been considered. You're only focusing on 1v1s. What about the scenarios where spectrier gets in safely on something else and then punishes that target hard, before you could revenge kill. It's not that easy.
2. I agree a dark team can beat spectrier, but dark type mons on other teams, don't have it easy. You mention meowscarada, but what if spectrier switches into something slower and passive beforehand, proceeds to say, burn it with will o wisp (e.g. ferro or cradily), then subs, uses cm. That mon likely loses and by the time you try to revenge kill, you're already losing more resources on that mon as well. Not to mention, you're not reliably switching in meowscarada to begin with. Ting lu maybe, but it can't repeatedly take hits long term and doesn't appreciate getting burned. Whirlwind only delays the inevitable problem. Alolan on muk doesn't appreciate getting burned (and considering that's their only check on poison to switch into ghost moves, that's not ideal), and risks getting worn down over time. Again, like the last point, you didn't consider other interactions. This time however, you also didn't consider that spectrier has the versatility in its sets to ruin its checks and how all these scenarios can go wrong. I have to bring up this example. There was a game in ndwc. Fighting vs ghost. And av iron hands would be that spectrier. However it got to a point where av iron hands got too chipped, and spectrier had an endgame where at plus 2 special attack, and plus 1 speed courtesy of a salac berry, it just won off one interaction. It's hard to account for every set spectrier runs on every team that you run against it. It could potentially have a way to ruin your team and they're all viable. And it takes a lot of strain to keep that in check, which is not only restraining on teambuilding, but gameplay as well.
3. Draining kiss may have low base power, but this is offset by spectrier being able to use nasty plot, and the fact that the targets it hits still take a decent amount. Sometimes draining kiss doesn't have to kill since it gives spectrier recovery which then may allow it to live vs the mon in an interaction and thus win the interaction next turn. Your experiences you mentioned about how it gets killed anyways, not to throw shade but it might be a reflection on how you didn't position it correctly. That or the opponent may have had such an aggressive team to not let you get that positioning. But if the latter were the case, then it means that players are forced to run such team archetypes in order to check it, which gets to a point where it becomes restricting, and thus unhealthy for the meta.
4. Just because sets are predictable, doesn't mean they're bad. Far from it. Just because a ferrothorn clicks hazards and leech seed 90% of the time, doesn't mean it's bad. You still have to respect it. Same case here. You still have to address the fact that np sub sets can snowball. And it still has enough versatility in its sets where it isn't as predictable as you think (I explained this in the scenarios above). Also, skill levels doesn't matter too much since when a mon in question is being looked at for a ban we assume all these interactions take place at top level, where all of them are played optimally and both players in the battle know the matchup
All of this doesn't even take into account the support spectrier gets. Sure it may not be egregious as say, mega mawile's support when it was allowed, but its support is still good enough as is where its very potent, the major thing about it being unhealthy is more of a spectrier thing if anything. Some HO ghost teams can run spikes with froslass on lead, then have gholdengo block defog, making dealing with spectrier long term harder. Balance teams may struggle since the combination of mega sableye and gholdengo shuts down passive play, and with the assortment of decent defensive options on ghost, it's not as easy to break, enough to enable spectrier, and let it do the rest for a game (which mind you, the opponent has to keep in the back of their mind since they cannot allow it to snowball at all or they have a good chance to lose).
A final point. Spectrier may not be as egregious or outright broken as some of the mons banned earlier. But that doesn't have to be the stands or limit for why a mon should be banned. If it's restricting enough on teambuilding and potentially even gameplay, then it's unhealthy, which can be the reasons for a ban.
P.S. that final point you have. I know you made that disclaimer about how it shouldn't be considered a point for why spectrier shouldn't be banned, but at that point, why even include it. That's you trying not to show bias but not doing a good job at it.
