Navukh.

TE – a non-standard approach and a dead-end in development.

Why is that? Because of the quick army transfer buttons, or the built-in second level, or other useful features? Or maybe because there are a couple of lines missing, and it's a LICENSE FROM BUKI? – NONSENSE!

Races and starting heroes are completely random!
This is a sign of the game's quality!

Complete nonsense. In my opinion, this shows that whoever gets luckier will level up faster and play better. Yes, you can win even with a worse starting position, or even after losing, if you are significantly better than your opponent (or at least half as good), but if the skill levels are roughly equal, it's unlikely. More global factors will have an impact, such as artifacts and so on.

People who come up with their own rules, their own versions of the game (TE), their own Great Russian chauvinism.
Therefore, my advice is, if you want to improve, learn from the mistakes of the past.

Yes, play SOD on a 2-minute timer (or even better, on a 1-minute timer), click the mouse 1000 times to break down units, and develop! That's what development is all about!!!