Dust_HL
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By the way, it's mostly the unfinished "branches" that are being developed
Chess, for example, has remained virtually unchanged throughout almost all of human history (since its inception) — and yet it is a super game and a sport
Let me try to explain my position one more time.
I'm not leaving my thoughts on some fan forum for CS or Quake, where people might also know and play Heroes in between intense duels "to let the brain rest" ;-), but I am on a Heroes resource where people come who view Heroes as something a bit more than just one game among many (for me, it's the only game). I think, believe, and am convinced that every inhabitant of such forums, like mine and yours(?), wants to achieve something greater in the Game. They didn't find this place, register, and stay here for nothing.
It means they want to develop, learn, and improve their level of play. And what, in your opinion, is the most fruitful, best, and fastest path of development? I, like many others, have seen from my own experience that only playing with the strongest players and gaining invaluable experience in tournaments with the best leads to an increase in level and an understanding of the game's depths. And yet, the vast majority of them (the best) have already switched to TE; how do they play? There are exceptions, of course, but they are far fewer in proportion — these are people who flatly refuse, afraid to overcome their own ingrained convictions, thinking that only their opinion and assessment are correct and nothing better exists, and they don't even want to try. And then there are those who are simply too lazy to spend a few minutes on it + play a few matches to understand/read what changes were made and why. Do you belong to such people!?
Suppose that right now you can still go to Bai and ask if anyone wants to play SoD; perhaps there are still some takers, since they themselves made the transition relatively recently and are satisfied. But after some time, those wishing to improve their level of play will no longer be able to find an excellent opponent, because all high-class players NO longer wish to play That when This exists. They don't want to experience imbalance and RNG luck. Simply put, they don't want to click the mouse for 2 minutes to transfer and divide an army; they want to spend those 2 minutes thinking about their further development plan. Furthermore, I should note that SoD is simply not suited for serious tournaments; all of Pitre — the best fixed-map players today — play TE, and all of Bai — the best random-map players today — have switched to TE. There is still Chaos League, but its functionality has been questionable lately. So the circle of development is drawn; whether you want to be inside it or outside is, of course, up to you... but the wagon is still where it was (c) :-)
Imagine, will you still be sitting there 5 years from now waiting for the miracle moment when your starting hero is Gurnisson with 12 Goblins and no ballista, and the second is Tiraxor with several wolves? Or maybe you'll still be sitting up at night playing through campaigns, or will you eventually want something more, to find serious opponents, attend a major tournament, and talk in person with wonderful people about the trends of the game's further progress!? Maybe not, maybe I've come to the wrong place!?
If you don't want to grow and advance in Heroes 3, then SoD is indeed enough for you. If you wish to play better, you will eventually have to commit this terrible act of upgrading: Heroes 3 SoD -> VoG -> TE.
P.S. Maybe someone can explain to me with arguments, without slogans like "SoD forever, period" or "I just like it this way," what the downsides of switching from SoD to TE are. What exactly is the problem?