I remember reading 7.00 patch notes as 6.xx era came to an end, trying to formulate a thought as to what would be good and what wouldn't be. I even had a little note to mention what I found interesting and broken in relation to my past experience of the game. Nearly all my expectation turned out to be incorrect when I played the new patch, it was a different game altogether. It left me with an odd feeling inside. That feeling was even more pronounced when I read 7.07 notes; helplessness. The only way to figure the game out is to feel it to your skin by playing it. And playing it a lot.
Coach of Secret kind of summed up my feelings: Blink Dagger: Future of Dota
I am honestly not that concerned. The game needs to be kept fresh in some manner to recruit new players. Retention of 40 year olds is probably not dota's long term problem. Its still dota, even if you haven't played in years. 95% of players are not good enough to have patch changes deeply impact their experience. Pro's sure, But they are getting to play for like 13 million + 20 million in prize pools this year. His normal sport analogies are weak at best. They most certainly don't have as many knobs to tweak as dota by far.
I'm not sure the core concepts that have been changed. For example he invoked Starcraft BW and Smash as his two examples of esport games that have gone patchless. In Starcraft's case at least, the game was kept competitive in large part due to the maps. Which just misses the point that the game was improved in a way without changing the rules, but there is only 3 races. Smash - I have no idea - I do not know how, what, when, where, and why accidents make it an esport other than its unintentional high skill ceiling. However, aren't some characters in smash just dead in competitive? Isn't only a portion of the cast viable? If anyone can answer this I'd love to know. This is where I just can't see a world where dota isn't getting patched, it has 110~ characters and the map is one thing that can adjust them all in a way that just changing one of them cannot. The difference between the first versions of Dota and Dota 2 today are immense...but the following is still true. It really does just play like Dota, play a game.