AnimaI WHOA HOSTILITY CHILL.
Look I get it I've read most of your posts already. I completely understand the lack of these features is dev reasoning to keep the game's charm and appeal; the "party" aspect. I completely understand your point. I'm not saying it needs to be a forced integration - perhaps it could be an accessibility toggle, or only for "Ranked" game modes if they were to introduce a ranked playlist.
Be realistic here - you're probably aware just as well as I am that there are some high-level/skilled players. Just so you're aware in case for whatever reason you weren't already familiar, there are a few other "family-friendly/party" type games I can think of that - in your words - became "meta". Mario Kart 8? Super Smash Brothers? Splatoon? League of Legends?The eSports scenes with all of those titles are massive, and incentivize high-level play. I'm not at all implying that such "meta" features should be forced integration - I'm just simply providing an alternative means for high-skilled/non-casual players, which you should know already if you play the game frequently already exists.