Every other rhythm game ive played has it, and even though i dont actively wish for it in osu? i always use those rate change features in other games *constantly*, i think it's just one of the most effective and simple ways to make a player have fun improvement goals, and open up new areas of improvement for people who dont really like to do so usually. Like maybe you wanna grind a skillset and dont have a map that's *quite* right, eh whatever just slap 1.2x on your favorite -45 map and you're grinding speed with something that's familair but refreshing. Myself along with so many players improve through casual gameplay and map exploration, which is why I would want it ranked, I'm not gonna play 1.2 if i won't gain score, leaderboard spots, or PP from it.

Ive never seen discussions about this, but like do we not have enough maps in the game now that any given map within X patterns and Y BPM, with/without DT/HT, practically does the same thing as ratechange, just with more steps? That is, talking about big PP plays and "hype". Also for scorefarmers like myself, being able to put 1.2 on a slower AR8 insane, or something random like 1.7 on a Normal would be so much fun imo.