What I am saying though is that the belief that the "competetive" MP crowd is doing the rest of the community a favor is a fallacy that has been statistically proven incorrect over countless of studies. (1)
Because competitive players play differently than the rest of the community, they will discover issues that the rest of the community does not see(2), are not affected by(3), and in many cases don't even understand(4).
Competitive MP players are the smallest denomination of any IP. (5)
Often times the vocal minority influences the majority, especially in this case. (6)
This is the reality of the situation. How you perceive that reality is up to you. (7)
I am not and have not made any personal attacks. (8)
(1) I usually try not to be pedantic, but really, if you're going to say something like that, I'd like see some sources

.
(2)(3)(4) Note that 2 and 4 are very closely related. A lot of times this leads people to the conclusion of 3. However, this is most certainly not the case. Game balance affects everyone playing the game. Even the smallest detail. The only things that wouldn't crossover are things that don't exist in this game for the most part (advanced micro methods). Anything related to numbers affects any gameplay.
(5) This might be a relevant point if there were two separate games here - one for single player and one for multiplayer - but this is not the case.
(6) In this case, that's a good thing. The minority in this situation are the experts that are more knowledgeable about the game than others (please note that I do not play this game competitively and so do not consider myself an expert on this game) simply because of the hours of work they devote to getting to know the game.
(7) Simply saying that you're correct doesn't make a good argument

. You need to back it up with other points.
(8) If we all remain civil, we will eventually get somewhere with any discussion. The competitive players among us that choose to throw insults and call people 'noobs' and 'numb skulls' are not helping anyone and every point they make is getting overshadowed by the emotional noise.