Not exactly. Just because I paid the same cash for SC2 as Flash did doesn't mean my opinion on balance should be given the same weight as his. I mean, I can express my opinion as much as I want, but at the end of the day any rational person wouldn't give our opinions equal weight.
I personally wouldn't speak a word about balance in any game unless I was a top player and felt I was qualified to do so. I don't care if people give their opinions, I just think it's silly and a waste of time, doubly so when it's pure theorycrafting because it's being done before the patch has even been released.
But I suppose I wasn't specific enough. What I find funny are the threads bitching about overnerfing and overbuffing and complaining about changes when 1) they haven't even played the patch, and 2) they're not even close to being qualified to make those sorts of judgments. Discussion is normal; making value judgments without sufficient information or expertise is not.
The problem with this train of thought is that the VAST MAJORITY OF PLAYERS are not ever going to be "elite". And while I completely respect the elite players opinion, it appears to me that if I'm a game developer that I am going to give priority to balance with respect to THE MEDIOCRE MAJORITY over the vocal elite minority while doing as good as I can to placate both.
In other words, if the elite players find it imbalanced but the majority finds it to be fine...then it's as balanced as it should be. At the end of the day, the game is a product and needs to be designed to cater to the largest % of its player base...not just some pie in the sky e-sport dream that we've been waiting 8 years and counting for.
That being said, I do find your past comments interesting and valid concerning the true issues with Coh2. But we both know that redesign you want (and frankly I wouldn't mind seeing either) isn't coming.