This is quite an interesting opinion piece. I'm very curious to know who this group of players include, whose 'sole purpose' has been to re-distribute wealth from the bottom to the top?
The whales I know in the community (and I know many personally) are damn well aware that their personal (and HUGE) investment in the game only does well if the game thrives by onboarding new players. And a LOT of new players at that. I also know many whales who fully support the 'little guys' through direct sponsorship, financial assistance and via access to game assets.
I don't know a single large holder who is under the illusion that the game succeeds by shifting all value to the top players while depriving the lower ones. In fact they are aware action like this hurts their investment, not help it.
I would love for you to elaborate with details, as this opinion piece sounds more like the bitter rant of someone who bought in at the top of a hype cycle and is salty from being down on their investment. What specific measures has this 'group of players' implemented specifically that funnel money from the bottom to the top?
That said, I personally believe that the COMPANY has inadvertently put up price barriers that can serve to thwart new players. Barriers and paywalls that are increasingly exclusive, and not inclusive. But that's the company, not players putting up price walls.
It was not directed at specific individuals. And it may also be that this was not the intention. But when you look at the measures and the results, the outcome was only a redistribution, with new barriers/paywalls for new players. And since people see their own profit in certain measures (short-sighted), naturally, people quickly find those who are in favor, without any conspiracy or such having taken place. You are welcome to go through all the measures yourself and see if someone profited in the short term and if it ultimately placed a new hurdle in the game. But it never solved the core problem, only delayed the problem temporarily, and in the end, it was only worse because the problem continued to work slowly, only then we even had additional new hurdles for new players. That was certainly not planned, but that happens in group dynamics, where many people are driven by greed, which is not a specific Splinterlands problem, it’s a world problem, many people are simply greedy and stupid, and we obviously have no filter for that. Just look at all the individual measures. Starter card penalty, level penalty, SPS staking, etc. See if there was a short redistribution with each of these measures or if it still exists. But in the end, it didn’t help, but left a new hurdle in the game. I mean, we can even look at the current CP proposal, was there a conspiracy, or did people plan something bad? No! But in the end, they again chose what they thought, without thinking, would be an advantage for themselves. In the end, we have only one measure that redistributes something, slows down the damage, but does not stop it, and for that, again leaves a new hurdle in the game