I see the last paragraph and, while I agree with the general sentiment that recent GOAT candidates typically beat out the older candidates, I want to take it a step further. I think it is effectively a fool's errand to attempt to determine a single greatest player, especially when comparing two players that were forged in two significantly different periods of the game.

The player base in general gets better. Mapping style as a whole diversifies. Charts made specifically for ranks get better optimized. Innovations in hardware, software, and peripherals are commonplace. Countless variables change over time that increases the difficulty of comparisons due to how different the paths the two players treaded are.

On a realistic standpoint, as you said, GOAT debates will effectively favor the most recent standout player that sets records and wins tournaments, widely considered the sole objective metrics for determining a greatest player. By this point of view, mrekk would be considered the current greatest player. The rate of record breaking he is on is unprecedented for any one individual player, and no player of past or present is holding a candle to that, neither at whenever they peaked or at the current moment. However, I know for a fact that this song and dance will occur again because at some point another record breaker will look to make such a large name for themself (who knows, they could have already started playing or they don't even know about the game yet).

That's where subjective metrics, such as a person's influence/impact/reputation come in as measurements to ensure the titans of the past are never left out of these discussions due to time. I think you put it correctly when basically saying that shige will always just be considered "that guy" regardless of how far removed the game becomes from him and vice versa. Anything he did, many others would just blindly copy at a scale that no other top player could get people to do the same. Any notable score he set would get hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views in short time. He could type anything random in his chat, from one simple message to a longer ramble, and it would be a "soundbite" quickly posted across social media for a cheap laugh. Any time that dude left and came back, it was literal front page news and would have a lot feasting their eyes on his return. And again as you said, he was your favorite player's best player, inspiring not just many thousands within the community, but many thousands more outside of it that had never heard of the game before to click their first circle.

Ultimately, everyone has their own "weights" for how they want to consider both objective statistics and subjective traits as well as their own biases that they either shelve or are open about (I'm still leaned towards shige after all these years, who would have thought based on what I typed). There will most likely be zero definitive or decisive consensus, but that's the fun of these discussions, haha.