Could have been a coincidence, but I think I spotted your dynamic duo in topics dedicated mostly to trolling or bullying some frustrated forum participants. If these were some outliers, then, well, a mistake happened — it happpens.
Not in the original Hearthstone as per Ben Brode’s initial vision — that’s my reference point, if you will, and the ‘line’ I’d argue for.
Sure, he might not have always been the greatest designer of all time, and I don’t agree with some of his ideas (regarding randomness and ‘variance’ in particular), but if you look at subsequent controversial changes in design philosophy and principles, I’d say he wins by comparison. I’d argue that remembering at least some of his ‘tenets’ wouldn’t be bad for the game at all. For example, one of them was the following: if they’d consider something ‘not fun’ for players (and to play against in particular), they’d refrain from printing it. This resonates very much with what you said about feelings in this topic, by the way, regardless of performance and whatnot, and I think it’s a good design idea: after all, the game should feel fun (sorry for tautology).