It's more a philosophical discussion that I intend to open even if it will/might impact the future
There is a tendency to go either for themed events or open events
My understanding is that MEG was/is intended as a rule that would cover a large historical period from very ancient times no rear/beginning renaissance
I did quickly choose to go for themed tournaments because I found out that some armies do not perform well in open and that so, some armies are not played at all because of their incapacity to be playable in an open tournament.
So should we just go for simple rules, simple weapons effect so as to make biblical armies a bit more compatible with medieval armies or should we go for more specific weapons and formation ( the pike and SP proposals for exemple ) which might make open tournaments a bit more complicated. That does not mean those amendments are wrong or positive just what do we want to play ?
I would prefer simplification of the rules first and simplification of weaponry. I have learned to use yari style weapons, pole arm weapons and basically is the difference that huge between both weapons ...not to me . So the first thing to do would be to know what we would like to change IF we need to change something.
The very last thing to modify are the army lists
And that means : themed way or open way
A common reason for holding open competitions is the fear that a themed competition will restrict people from entering (as they won't have an appropriate army). Open competitions often result in non-historical match-ups and can be a bit of a lottery.
Creating a good theme is not simple. An appropriate balance of armies can be tricky to achieve. A theme where too many people take the same army is a bit pointless.
In creating the army lists and looking at the rules we only focus on historical outcomes. The rules provide a framework, but we are trying to interpret how army x compared to army y looking at the sources (which are often very limited).
I don't think themed or open is an either/or. I think there will continue to be a mix of completely open, broad themed and more narrow themed competitions which is a good thing.