Ideas and suggestions.

I bet that if we set up a poll right now on whether a remake is needed, 90+% of the top 30 players would vote YES.

This is a rare exception, possible only because it has already been tested in SoD. And I think you remember what was in the SoD poll. And this is despite the fact that the issue is really "painful."

The reaction to untested innovations (of which there are 90++%) is exactly like this.

Why is there not a single player in the jury of peers who decides which innovations should be implemented and which should not? - this is my main and long-standing question to the HotA team.

Probably because such a jury does not exist. Decisions are made collectively, after lengthy discussions, although not always quickly.

And nothing prevents these discussions from being held publicly - comments from the forums are carefully read and analyzed. You can also always ask the team members - what do you think about a particular idea - would you like to implement it, and if not, why?

I'll add my 5 cents.
There is still another type of player (I don't know how many there are, many or not), let's call them "home players." I am one of them. I don't play tournaments, I don't play online (although, I won't argue, all this is very interesting). I don't have much free time, so I can only play for my own enjoyment for a very short time.
So, here's what I'm getting at: some of the changes made by HotA (as I think) are specifically for games with real opponents or for tournament games.
I think 85% of the changes are positive (especially the map sizes and artifact collections).
But personally, I would like to have the ability to remove some of HotA's innovations. That is, so that there is (for example) some checkbox (like in HD+), allowing you to edit the changes.

The main problem with this wish is that a large number of settings leads to a large number of gameplay options - some players like one thing, others like another, and all this provokes arguments and flame wars. This has been repeatedly tested on TE and WTE.

Therefore, at one time, it was decided that the HotA gameplay should be one and indivisible, that there should be a minimum number of settings in it, approximately as in SoD - timer, difficulty level, template settings.

There are modules that can be connected to HD to change the gameplay; you can try to persuade Baratortcha to make what you need. Or do it yourself (if you know how to program).