I’m certainly not very competent in these matters, but this doesn’t resemble SoD in any way — it’s pure WoG.

I’m not particularly competent either, but I’d like to comment:
TE*k=SoD=WoG=(SoD+WoG)*balance, where the variable k can be used to adjust almost everything by enabling or disabling certain features, thereby turning TE into either SoD or WoG. SoD and WoG are intended only for single-player. Kind people made TE specifically for maniacs like us to play online, combining all previous versions and add-ons of Heroes 3 into one whole. If someone doesn’t like the WoG aspects like experience and army upkeep — disable them. Don’t like classes — toss them out. Find the chess clock inconvenient — feel free to use a regular SoD-style timer. Don’t like the modified heroes (for example, being used to Loynis having Prayer instead of Blessing as a starting spell) — they made all heroes standard SoD ones. This list of comparisons could go on for a very long time. I’ve only been playing TE for a couple of months (without upkeep, experience, and classes) and I really like this add-on. All the innovations provide a host of additional opportunities and strategies. Tell me, who voluntarily takes the "Eagle Eye" skill? In TE, combined with a hero’s luck, it can transform artifacts. Does anyone take the "Learning" skill? I doubt it. But in TE, Expert Learning adds 60% to all acquired experience. Not bad, right — getting about 2500 XP from a chest? That’s TE’s balance. There are no longer any completely useless skills. I could list them endlessly, but I won’t. Anyone who wants to read the manual and decide for themselves whether they like it or not can check out the manual (168kb) — everything is detailed there.

Any displaced guard must be "breached" (if two or three guards are scattered along the road — any one of them can be chosen to breach). It is allowed to collect chests, campfires, and resources past a displaced guard. Collecting or visiting anything else is prohibited, including entering neighboring respawn points.

Alright, maybe I misunderstood the statement:

And what if the map is generated crookedly and the obelisk is in an inaccessible place or with very strong guards (say, when moving from respawn to respawn, 20-49 Titans), or on the opponent’s territory in a hard-to-reach place?

As for experience and army upkeep — I don’t particularly support them myself. But if the organizer deemed it necessary to enable them, that’s their right, and one must accept it (though if you ask nicely, they might agree to disable these features ;) ). In a tournament on another forum, me and the guys disabled all of this, even though it’s not that hard to remember.