Pruned the post for the sake of thread flow
This is the second time now that I've been accused of trying to troll up some kind of massive insurrection. You say that you understand my cynicism, if you truly do, that means you're willing to step outside of your insider position within the community, your personal context with different parties involved, and see how it looks from the outside.
You made multiple references throughout your post to things like haves and have nots, and conspiracies over the years, also about how people have been conflating Paragon Chat and discussion with Paragon Chat with private servers, at best, these points are being made disingenuously given the context that we know now in the wake of the leaks.
There are, quite literally, haves and have nots. This is not up for debate any more it is simply a matter of fact. The question is, was that being done deliberately, or with some sort of elitist glee, I'm 100% willing to learn that it was not. The idea that this has just been a completely secret project that Leandro wanted to make as perfect as possible before bundling it up and releasing it into the world to become it's own unstoppable monster, popping up and forcing NCSoft's legal team into a constant wack-a-mole game of trying to shut down random private servers, that's entirely plausible. It just doesn't look that way in some ways in retrospect, largely on account of the manner in which people have guarded this secret over the years.
You have to be willing to understand here, that we have 100% full knowledge now that Leandro was running the server, that is out in the open and confirmed on multiple major news websites. This is going to naturally create a lot of guilt by association, though that may be completely unfairly, and I can understand your position here, if I was accused of being involved of something without actually reaping the benefits of having access to it I would be pissed too. It's not fair, but given the circumstances I also don't think it's fair to react to the feelings of guilt by association incredulously.
You mentioned that the conspiracy theorists over the years doing a victory lap, I've never understood this position socially, that anyone who has ever posited a conspiracy theory is forever marred as incorrect, even when their theories were confirmed over time. I can understand that there are some theories out there that was completely outlandish or unfounded, but some of them were spot on and likely directly informed by earlier, smaller scale leaks. I don't quite understand the disdain for those people who were on the money with their theories of a server existing that we all now know to be a fact. As a third party, one who was not banging on the conspiracy wardrums over the years and one who is not a community insider or, more so, a member of the NDA party, it looks like people being upset over getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. That's just how it comes across. I don't mean it as an accusation I'm just asking that you understand that the optics look bad on it.
I apologize for pushing the concept of a caste system, and ultimately that is unfair. My personal background was working in the esports industry, I know that at the time CSGO was being developed, a number of pro players from previous CS iterations were invited to playtest and provide feedback and I completely understand the importance and the value in that. I can see how that may have been the case for this server, where they needed people they knew were active, knowledgeable players and I can understand that people were being extremely selective because it needed to be people who could guard the secret long enough for it to reach fruition. I just don't think the outright vitriol and condescension towards people who have caught wind of this project over the years and felt it was sinister is fair at all.
People involved with the project can follow the NDA and protect the secret without being jerks about it, and in retrospect going back and seeing posts where people are quite literally outlining some of the aspects of it that we now know to be true, while scoffing at it and mocking the idea of it, it's a MAJOR contributor to why people feel there was overt elitism and gaslighting involved and I truly hope you and others are willing to understand that.