It's more that as you hit Tier 3, parts of the game shifts into multiple genres.It's less a balance shift, and more a genre shift as you hit Tier 3 at 11. Which, you know, I prefer that Tier 2 as a narrative Genre, too.
At no point in my comment did I state my preferences.Do you have access to the polling results? Access to internal reviews, and playtests done by the core testing groups? Have recordings of meetings that they discuss this? Anything at all other than "I don't like their decisions"?
I have no idea what the majority of people did or did not want, what the results of polls were or how they made final decisions. I do know that this is the best selling edition ever. In my opinion that would not have been possible without a solid game that works well enough for most people. Whether you, me, or your uncle Bob agree with the decisions are not particularly relevant.
What I stated is.
- In the public playtest, X,Y and Z was in DND Next
- In more that one playtest packet, X,Y and Z was still present
- The public playtest ended
- 5e was published without X Y and Z
- Topics about X Y and Z being missing became popular in D&D media
- X, Y and Z returned to 5e in XGTE or TCOE.
I literally have a PDF with XYZ, a PHB with ABC, and TCOE with XYZ.