I agree and I would hold the same stance had Tera been banned and someone suggested that we hear the lapsed pro-Tera players opinions. People who play the tier frequently for sure are more informed than the infrequent players, you didn't know there was a survey what else you don't know as jump in and jump out of the tier?
This is an oversimplification. Players can be knowledgeable about the game, pokemon in general, and even game design. You can come back, play some games, read some discussions, and figure out the state of things within not too long. It's not like you have to play the whole way through to be an informed player. And my arguments for why I believe it is harmful haven't changed much.
As it is the changes to the tier through various tiering actions like bans or additions like DLCs often shake up the tier. The meta game one moment may be entirely different than one the next moment. But no, that's not an argument for only the people who were constant because the folks who come in and out can still figure out the new meta, just as the folks playing along the whole time literally have to do every time there is a shift. This insinuation that you just can't catch up is flat wrong.
As for the survey comment, that wasn't about a lack of knowledge. I just didn't play during that period. So what? But then I came back and increased my knowledge again. I read the discussions surrounding various issues. In no way am I saying we need a do over of the survey because I didn't participate. You snooze you lose would be fair enough. However, the point about surveys being misleading is often valid. This is not just the case for Smogon, but in general. If you ever look at political polling, for example, those things are generally nonsense compared to actual results.
The whole debate is closer than some on here would like us to believe. And if any group of folks is left out of the survey, as was the intial point of discussion, even closer. Now I still say Tera is probably more popular and wouldn't be banned based on that popularity contest. But if we are going to argue about it purely from the merits of the survey, much of this discussion is inherently flawed.
Banning Tera may not solve SV OU powercreep so players that share your mindset may abandon the tier even with a Tera ban. Again, why should we prioritize non-players?
This is the wrong question to ask. What Smogon should be prioritizing are not
"non-players" any more than they should be prioritizing
"player players" or whatever you want to call them. They should be prioritizing
balance, which is the entire point of this system in the first place. Not populous opinions.
Furthermore, the idea that you call them non-players is fundamentally flawed. You are putting them into a box. It's a sort of us versus them division that doesn't need to be that way. They may not always play, but they may play sometimes and/or might like to play more. They could be players, too. That's the whole point of saying the survey could be missing potential players. It likely is.
I will admit that with gen 9, Smogon is in a no-win situation. The gen 9 powercreep would be insane even without Tera. You cannot please everybody. It does feel to me like maybe we are trying to please the majority too much sometimes.
Would players with my mindset abandon the tier with a Tera ban? Well, no. I can't speak for everybody, but my mindset isn't one of abandoning the tier in the first place. I just take breaks from it sometimes. If they are like me in mindset, it wouldn't be about abandoning the tier. That's not the point of what I said. Like why am I even here if I abandoned the tier with Tera even still active? That makes no sense.
