Zman, that's not the reason. It's because Smashers are so very closed to constructive criticism from outside sources. People don't realize that there is no one more biased than the top Brawl player or Brawl TO. Yes, they know their ****. No, sometimes they can't be truly objective.
Take the FD situation. I guarantee you, as in willing to put money on the table, that if we went to SRK and posted a thread (that people actually posted in) entitled "Is Final Destination a starter-worthy stage?" and explained what a starter was supposed to be in the context of our metagame, they would, hands down, deny it's starter-worthy. Yes, those people might not know Brawl inside-and-out, but you know what they do know? ALL of the underlying, base concepts that make competitive Brawl. They know game balance. They know pacing. They know fairness. They know competitive theory. They know entertainment.
They have to balance these things all the time. You know, having the most prolific fighting game series of all time every year.
But, we are closed-minded and cannot take criticism, especially if that criticism is about our sacred cows (like our starters, like item play, like the CP system). THAT'S why we can't ever get along with SRK and EVO: because they would require us to assimilate into a greater fighting game community, and we refuse to assimilate. "We're awesome!", we proclaim, while they try to explain back "No, you're not, dude. Don't lie". We really do have that proverbial "swagger like a cripple", but in our eyes, we swagger like we're a million bucks.
THAT'S why SRK can't stand us. Because we're so full of ourselves that we won't ever make room or take steps to assimilate into greater fighting game culture. We refuse, because we're convinced, like the ****ing House Republicans, that we don't have to compromise due to our own innate amazing-ness and correctness.
It's because, in essence, we're stuck-up *******s.
