I haven't read the entire thread, but I see that lots of people are using the argument that certain things that are very good would be to easy to perform. It's not comparable to things like sweetspotting , b/c sweetspotting is more then just pressing a button. Also, auto-sweetspotting completely changes around the options that you have (which auto-lcanceling wouldn't), since an opponent who can see that you're going for the sweetspot can just edgehog you.
It isn't comparable to powershielding either. b/c it's so hard to do that doing something else (like normal shielding) to avoid the risk of messing it up is often preferable.
Also, powershielding does have a disadvantage to normal shielding: more shield-knockback, which can push you out of shieldgrab range. So if you're going for a shield-grab doing a normal shield is just plain better.
Here you have 2 options, one that is usually better: powershielding (if your char has a good close range attack that is faster then his grab). And one that is MUCH easier to do and almost as good: normal shielding. But the advantage of powershielding isn't huge and it's very hard to do. You take a big risk to gain a small advantage in close range combat (powershielding) or you can make a safe choice that is almost as good and very easy to do (normal shielding). This makes powershielding a much less viable option. You have a CHOICE.
This does not exist when it comes to L-canceling. You L-cancel or you miss the L-cancel, end of story. You wouldn't choose to not L-cancel in any situation b/c it is safer. L canceling is always the best option.
Anyway, I wouldn't mind if noobs could shffl. if you're good enough you can win anyway, you just need to play smarter. And playing smart is what all competitive games SHOULD be about. What's the fun in winning just because your opponent kept messing up his l cancels? He's practically giving you the win! You don't even have to unsmart him. That's boring.
Also, I don't really agree that it would take away a large aspect of technical skill from the game.
I'll use drillshining as an example:
L canceling is prolly the easiest technical thing you have to worry about with when drillshining. Timing the jump cancel of the shine is much harder (not to fast or nothing will happen b/c of the hitlag, not to slow b/c then it won't combo) and doing the dair early enough in the jump are the hardest technical parts. Except for the spacing off course, which is by far the hardest part of drillshing (especially if your opponent has unpredictable DI)
SSB64 was competetive because it was all about avoiding the 0-death combos. Although it was easily possible to mess up these combos, SSB64 defined the smash bros series as being competetive because of l-canceling. There was no airdodging or anything, and these combos literally separated Isai from the pros, and the pros from everyone else.
This is not true, at all. I can and have pulled off many of the combos that Isai does in SSB64 but I'm not even close to his skill. I'm convinced that he's 5-stock me if we ever played (even if my combo/tech skill was equal to his, which it isn't, it sucks compared to his)
Also, L canceling in SSB64 is very easy (easier then in melee, you can just mash Z if you want and you'll l cancel everything) and NOT what makes those combos hard at all. I can't beleive you think that >.> What kind of combos are you doing if L-canceling is the hardest part of them? lol
It's not difficult. It's barely technical. Really, it's technical for the sake of being technical (which is dumb).
QFT.