I don’t think anyone who has come to the forum in support or in opposition to addons has lied about whether they use them.
People who say they use addons seem to do more complex content. Or what content they do they do more seriously.
People who say they don’t use addons haven’t actually done most of the content they claim it provides others with an unfair advantage in. Or at least at as high a level of difficulty or commitment than those who do.
A lot of them tell us they are as good a player as effective a player as people who do. But how would they even know? If you aren’t using a dps addon, you don’t know how much damage you’re doing. You have no way of comparing your performance with that of other players who may or may not use addons.
I think most people don’t use addons. I on my many alts do loads of leveling dungeons, often on low level twinks. Anyone who is looking at their damage meter would see that there was something very odd going on and say something. Seriously, the healer is doing 60% of the damage in the dungeon? The tank is doing 90% of the damage? Only maybe 1 in 20 dungeons does someone whisper me, “…Uh, tank…?”
I think most players who think addons give better players an unfair advantage over them are like the anti-flyers who complain that people who fly have an unfair advantage over them in gathering. “I have chosen to gimp myself by not taking advantage of features available to all, therefore the game should be modified to keep other people from using those features, too.”
Like, no. There should be a word for this behavior pattern, but I’m not sure there is one. Everybody should feel free to coin a neologism (new word) for it.
I think the biggest problem with the mentor program is that it was designed to help rush new players into end game by recruiting players who had done lots of end game. Fulfilling those requirements means that players may not have leveled a character in more than a decade, and may have not been a new player since 2004. Meanwhile, the concept of rushing players to max level so they can jump into end game is flawed. Why, because people they run into while leveling might be a bad influence? What is the possible justification for denying access to the group finder to players sub 50? Given that it had zero effect on group finder advertising, yet they didn’t change it, I assume that it was intended to keep players from meeting other players by grouping up with them.
There’s a lot of old-timey players who think that there’s nothing confusing about the game for new players. They can’t understand why a new player who is learning to move their character across the screen on day 1 isn’t ready to run mythic+ dungeons on day 2. How would those people be kept from telling a new player to git gud, and believing they had done that new player a favor?
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addons.