Boy, you people sure do offend easily. It just strikes me as rather narcissistic and delusional to assume you understand high-level play without being able to compete at a high level. It's possible, sure, but extremely rare.
Agreed, small patches are the way to go, but that approach requires rapid updating, and Relic is traditionally terrible at iterating quickly. I can't comment on the efficacy of the balance changes, of course, but it worries me that it's only balance changes that are being made, since balance has always been secondary to the game's more fundamental issues.
I just said they did a good job and that makes me narcissistic and delusional. Damnit.