How is 40k 7th edition "less competitive" than 40k 5th edition

[Charon]

The assertion is that a good player should always win against a less skilled player despite lists.

Wrong assumption in m opinion. If the skill gap is not extremely huge, this will work nearly nowhere. Look at F1 for example. The best combination of Car + Driver usually wins.
You can't just go and say "if he was a really good driver he would win F1 even with a VW Beetle." Doesn't work like this.

But I do agree that the list is too important thus my rants against GWs incompetent internal and external balance.

[StingrayP226]

Wrong assumption in m opinion. If the skill gap is not extremely huge, this will work nearly nowhere. Look at F1 for example. The best combination of Car + Driver usually wins.
You can't just go and say "if he was a really good driver he would win F1 even with a VW Beetle." Doesn't work like this.

But I do agree that the list is too important thus my rants against GWs incompetent internal and external balance.

Problem is GW honestly doesn't care that much... that is why they beat the "It's a for fun game." In translation they are saying "We do not care about making the game well balanced." Same reason Catalyst says "Battletech is a Board Game" they don't want to make sure the quality of their rules (GW) or miniatures (CGL/IWM) are at their best.

The worse part is that GW makes you pay stupid prices for a rule book/faction in a game that has less than stellar game rules. So basically pay premium prices for subpar work. Ok that is not completely true as the art in the books is usually great! Mean while other systems that are much more balanced and spend extra time (and thus money) trying to balance their games have books that cost the same as a single GW faction book, or heck hand out rules for free!

Often I wonder how GW stays on top with such glaring issues that they admit they never care to fix. Granted balancing 40k would be a massive chore and effort. You would need to rework ALL the factions in rapid session using one as a base line (Marines likely). Though its possible... play tester wise just let volunteers in but still need to hire/get a ring leader so it doesn't become complete chaos.