There can never be true balance, there will always be a meta, once one thing is balanced a new strategy will appear. No matter what game you play this will always be the case. I hate the idea of working for cosmetics, It seems very lackluster to me, as someone who doesn't hunt for achievements I don't see a point in going for them, unless it's a fixation someone has they provide no value, I will still never budge on the idea to make achievements worthless it would also devalue the time I've already spent unlocking these. Now you typically don't see much meta progression in auto battlers these days, it's an interesting change, not only to mention that lectvs made the game this way!!! ---Edit Addressing your point regarding ranked with fewer players in the matchmaking. This would make building against a specific player's build meta... if you see where I'm going with this. It influences the balance of the game, but having different specialized game modes to play wouldn't be bad overall.
If you care more about the time you spent (having fun btw) unlocking some balls on a completely free game that has brought you hours and hours of entertainment being "devalued" (even though now you're being given skins for free on top of having had early access to these balls) more than you care about the game's genuine well being, if that's truly the angle you're coming from at this, then I think this discussion is a waste of time and maybe you should reconsider whether you're trying to actually help make the game better or just attempting to cut your invisible "loses" lmao.
I wonder what type of motivation has sparked you to make such a conceited argument against me. Has it ever occurred to you that this is your opinion? the game may be better in your opinion, but I disagree. At this point you're just wasting my time, lets discuss my main problem with your argument. If I were to spend hours of time grinding a game to become level 100 only for it to be reset, yes I'd reconsider if this game is worth the time spent. You cant meet all your consumers wants, it's impossible. I Have Realised through reading your comment... That Not Once did you attempt to counterclaim against what I had wrote, devolving into using morals and ethics to persuade me rather than logic.
tl;dr You're weird for being hatefully motivated in this discussion over a video game.
Cool.
Developer, if you're reading this, be very very careful how, keyword, how you listen to player's advice. When this player says "it would also devalue the time I've already spent unlocking these", this is the real value in his advice, its his personal genuine true objective feelings on the matter. This is how most players advice will benefit you, not from what they're telling you to do (which are largely just emotionally driven justifications for what they personally want to see from the game), but rather what they genuinely personally say they want. Now player's personal feelings don't necessarily always need to be addressed, especially if its a fringe personal feeling that very few players will likely reiterate like in this case, but in the case of many players reiterating the same feelings (and not just a very vocal minority), it probably is something you should genuinely consider. I'm not saying the emotional "logic" that follows a players justification for their personal desires can't be correct (everyone gets lucky every now and then, and when it actually is the case that their feelings are a product of an actual genuine issue with the game, the emotional justification that accompanies their feelings towards said genuine issue will actually be correct), but this is the exception, not the rule. Not everyone is bright enough or experienced enough in game development to tell you what the right course of action is, but even a 5-year-old can tell you how they truly feel about something. Its ultimately up to you what you do with that information.