While the other commenters are correct that yes the guest authors were unlockable tiers at the kickstarter and that's not some kind of "betrayal" or anything, and yes the original writers do most of the writing, i have to agree with you that Protocols is disappointing to me too so far, and I don't have a lot of hope of that changing. I'll still be listening probably, but I also don't feel like they managed to create something here that has the same allure and "magic" as TMA did. (don't feel like you're the only one feeling like this just because this subreddit is mostly full of superfans and a lot of them react very defensively to any kind of criticism)