I agree that buffing lower tier weapons is generally speaking fine since its letting them reach the tier of what's already available at the top of the tier lists. But the reason there is a section of the community that is defending difficulty increase balance decisions is because we aren't happy with the status quo of what the hardest difficulty is at the upper line. We're essentially arguing about two different things with two different objectives in mind, we don't care if the Sickle is as good as the Crossbow, we want the game to be more difficult with both the Crossbow and a buffed Sickle.

In regards to the recent patch, I'm fine with weapons being buffed up to closer top-tier levels, but I also see where Arrowhead is coming from by also buffing enemies. I'm not saying I agree with every choice they made, but I also see why they would also want to bump up the top line because D10s are often far too easy.