I have to agree with you, despite being a niche mode, it was great for helping players. But just because isn’t popular, it shouldn’t be kept removed, the same with classic game modes.
Which in the long run is very bad for the player because the game is designed for solo play, not archon. Even if a player learns something from Archon mode, after jumping into 1v1 they will get crushed because they won’t be able to cope with all the multitasking the game requires - base management, unit control, harass at the same time etc.
For the final time - NO ! It was stupid that this mode was introduced, i never played it and it’s waste of server power even if you disagree with me.
with LOTV they tried to fix SC2 main problem, its genre, making RTS scene more dynamic and pacey, that’s why they introduced the 12 drones start and somewhat imposed players to move out of their base and get expansions to juice out all the action in the game. It’s a different feeling playing out battles with capital ships rather than hanging on a thread of life with 2 stalkers and ever guessing if more roaches will come again. Also the build-up in WOL was particularly hard as a lost drone or any other wrong move early in the game had such a large impact over the course of the game.
While controversial, i think these changes made the overall SC2 experience more appealing to anyone considering playing it, although I fully agree with you it came at the expense of veteran players. I played like <10 matches in HOTS realizing it’s such BS and went back to old faithful WOL. LOTV is more playable but it still has some balance issues. However, they literally had a decade to test and balance units in WOL before even releasing the game and most of the units already existed from the previous SC, so easier to work around chemistry and general functionality. In LOTV they had to rush things to get $$ and this was (at least for me) really noticeable in ladder balance.
But I think it’s good they have removed the WOL/HOTS queues, although I was actively playing them and favoring them over LOTV. Mostly because 4v4 and 3v3 took an obscene amount of Q time (I was waiting ~7-10 minutes for 4v4 at 10.00 PM CET, 3.00-4.00AM were simply not enough players, I had like 40-45 mins Q times and I just went to sleep eventually). Also, not being enough players lead to match-up inconsistencies (I was Master, placed with 3 silvers which were basically AFK vs 4 plats). I was barely winning the match 1v4 and I was getting +0 or +2 pts per victory which made no sense playing anymore.
Same thing happened to Archon and I’m glad they removed it. And just like the rest, WOL, HOTS, FFA, there were simply not enough players and it makes no sense dividing an already crippling player base over some dead queues. And just like WOL, HOTS and FFA, people can still play Archon (or at least should, I haven’t tried) in custom games.
As a final note, it would have been better from Blizzard to be more transparent on communication by explicitly saying they have intentionally removed it, instead of wrapping it around as patch bug or whatever. Also, kinda D move from them to remove achievements from the players. I don’t agree with that fake GM finish in Teams, but at the same time, it was players effort and merit, and probably the only real incentive to play that mode.