Дегустация Horn of the Abyss

You're simply comparing them to the wrong ones. Flax, Necr, Ramp... it's still unclear with them; there are chances for cuts (especially the first two). The same goes for Inferno — it's hard to understand its strength without tests.

I've already learned that when things are hard to understand, you need to test and time will tell. However, I still don't understand how the developers decided that three stacks from the aforementioned cities are okay, but three stacks of Shaktis are not? For some reason, there is no doubt left here. Well, maybe they overlooked it and decided to copy the general principle from WT without overthinking; you can never account for everything. But resolutely rejecting a well-founded opinion backed by experience is also not right. Although one way or another, a trace will remain, and if people try out HotA, others might have similar thoughts too.

You need to compare them with the rest, where the gameplay either hasn't changed much or has changed predictably. I didn't ask for nothing — did Dungeon become weaker than Castle-Swamp(-Strong-Tower)? IMHO it didn't; Cherke still stands above, and that is quite enough.

Indeed, you asked, I didn't notice immediately — forgive me — and you didn't always answer my questions on the first try either ;)
I consider the Dungeon-Castle pair, taking into account all changes, to be as close as possible to the understanding of "balance." Tower — I never liked this castle in many aspects, just not for me — I won't judge. If Bishop ever feels like playing HotA, you can ask him about it. Strong — a very specific castle — probably one of the most. Especially so in HotA, with many starters (Crag, Dessa, Gunni, Tirax, Grecha) — a lot depends on the map template, color, and specifics of objects, guards, and free gold — therefore there is no single answer; at least not weaker than HotA's Dungeon — that's my IMHO. Swamp — stronger than HotA's Dungeon, except for small templates, but considering HotA's orientation toward super-large templates, it often turns out stronger due to one of the strongest starters in the game.

besides, they are also beautiful (unlike 23-33).

and you wrote about kindergarten logic... n/c

In my opinion, if Dungeon's starting army is to be strengthened, it should be by adding Eye-Harpies to lift the other starters (Lora, Gunnar).

Maybe so, but classic Dungeon gameplay is Shaktis; if you rework other heroes — you'll get WT gameplay, do you really want that?