Discussions, post-mortems, analysis, inflated egos, and all that jazz.

It is a huge blessing that the third heroes managed to avoid such shame and degradation

I wouldn't choose such harsh expressions. Yes, there are many controversial points from the perspective of the classic heroes, but there are also very many successful solutions.

To make the comparison clearer, let's imagine that the 3DO/nwc company had gone under after the release of ROE, and SoD had been made by a fan group. How much outpouring would there have been?) In terms of balance, just look at the Conflux. It raises far more questions than the Cove.