You can tell its a weak argument when it comes to "I have played path for a bit". What do you call that? A pet argument? ;) "I am plenty skilled" good for you, than I dont see how you ever had a problem against a path.

"I'll continue to believe the people with the data and incentive to get it right beyond "this is what I want to do" are making reasonably informed decisions."

You mean the same people that have the incentive to make as much money as possible. Data is only so good as the people that read it and act on it, not every decision is based on whats best for the game, history should also tell you that yes even devs get it wrong....

Have a great day.