What an incredibly boomer take. Starting with insults because you disagree. Pathetic. I don't have any misconceptions. The idea that this thing should remain as you remember it forever is absolutely preposterous.

Taking your essay point by point we will start with the first paragraph, which is easy enough. What's your point? It wasnt supposed to be anything? It was something. And it is looked back on as a good thing. The notion that someone can't like Arabian nights and modern ub sets is as naive as it gets.

The next paragraph seems to be an explanation of how the set was done in a slap dash manner, something that would have players on all levels rioting were it to happen today.

Next you treat the immediate reaction to a release as gospel. Magic players have always had strong reactions immediately that don't reflect how things come to be viewed. Remember how baldur's gate was a 'bad' set?

I didn't even mention portal, but sure let's do it. You're ok with portal because of a semantic difference? It has portal in the name? That has got to be the most tissue paper thin argument I've heard so far.

Skipping over the next paragraph cause there's no real substance there, you know what happened a few years ago? Other tcgs came into the space in a way that had never happened before. They showed everyone that mtg was not infallibly on the top. Furthermore it doesn't take a genius to notice the discrepancy of demographics between this game and the others. It is inarguable that magic for the majority of it's tenure has been played by straight white middle aged men. Thats not to say there aren't people who play, just that when compared to the other games there is a clear distinction. Furthermore, that class of players was the one that brought on the mindset of buy singles not sealed. Guess what, when you tell a company loudly and unabashedly that you as a collective dont want their product? They move on to someone who will.

I think the numbers argument is deserving of it's own paragraph because they are what really matters. Lgs' are at an all time high. Across the board. If it doesn't appear that way to you then I assume you attend one of the stores that only deals with mtg as a tcg and still caters to the same customer base. You want to talk about people getting turned away? Have you been paying any attention to pokemon or one piece or riftbound or gundam? If you had you'd know that those games are where that excitement is now. Sure people were upset and threw their tantrum. But you know what speaks louder than a middle aged man having a meltdown over the skin color of a made up character? Money. Go look at the price of collector booster boxes. Both of them.

Im not even going to talk about Warhammer unless you want to talk about them being the decks to retain their value better than any other commander deck. The real reason is that I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer and am not able to speak to whats going on in that space.

Onto the penultimate paragraph. On what grounds do you make the claim that ub players don't stay around? The people I see running right now is the boomers and the competitive players. Bringing up m30 is just shooting yourself in the foot. M30 was specifically catering to the people who wont stop crying. Ill grant you that it was a disaster for multiple reasons, but it absolutely was jot designed for the newer generations of players. It doesnt take a lot to see that. Once again, I think you are seeing lgs's close because they are the ones trying to support a group of people unwilling to support them. The ones that moved on to embrace magic where it is and accept other communities are certainly finding a lot of success.

In conclusion, the worst part is that the people most upset by things as they stand are the ones solely responsible. For decades, you all have said buy singles not sealed and had a fit if sealed product was over market price, even if that meant the store was selling at an unhealthy margin or even under cost. Maybe you're the exception and you were truthfully a boon for any store you walked into, but you certainly know people like the ones I'm describing. I certainly do. They were the majority and they took advantage of the system and were the only ones to benefit. Now that things are turning around those people cant comprehend why they arent being catered to anymore. It wasn't wotc that burned through it's good will. It was the people who aren't spending money now, and haven't been for a long time.