His comments on his tweet when he worked for Blizzard are not. If a Journalist were asked to comment on a piece they wrote for a newspaper they no longer work for a couple of years down the line, does that make their opinion on that piece irrelevant?
You are holding an absurd position because what was said does not support your aims or position.
This response does not make sense. A neutral race or shared race is exactly that, a race available to both factions. The Pandaren are apparently divided on different philosophical interpretations of their way of life, Tushui against Huojin, which does not translate into physical differences in the character creator. Attempting to differentiate two groups via philosophy is pointless, you cannot express philosophy in a character creator. How do you express 'valor' or 'nobility'? These are attitudes, not physical differentiators.
Even if they came from two groups explicitly written to live apart they would still look identical and thus share an aesthetic and a theme and therefore, they would fail just as Pandaren did by undermining the distinctiveness of the Alliance and the Horde.
If on the other hand you argue that there could be some physical differences, to produce a different aesthetic and theme alongside the philosophical variations, then we are in Blood/High Elf versus Void Elf territory. Void Elves and Blood/High Elves are two physical varieties of the same race, but Void Elves are now physically different from the core group. This pairing does not mean Blood/High Elves are a shared race, as the Void Elves now exhibit physical, aesthetic and thematic differences. This means they do not infringe on the distinctiveness of the two factions.
So you cannot use philosophy as the basis for a shared race because that cannot be represented on the model which the Pandaren demonstrate. And using physical differences invalidates the premise, as then they become different and are no longer shared.
You state nothing is preventing another neutral race. This is incorrect.
We have enough evidence, including the Game Director stating so directly twice in the past eighteen months, that keeping the boundaries between the factions firm is a design goal when it comes to choosing Allied races. We have evidence from a previous senior staff member that they were not keen on sharing Pandaren between the two factions. Just because you hold the division between the factions in such contempt as to disregard it does not mean everyone else has to.
The Allied race system solves many of the issues that a neutral race was intended to mitigate. The Allied race system has none of the downsides a neutral race has. It has downsides of it's own, but not on the same level as a neutral race.
You keep arguing that it's possible but possibility does not equate likely or even probable. If you arguing that the theoretical possibility that it could happen exists, then yes, that does exist.
So to prove your point you rule out the time period when they have added eight new races to the game? That's like attempting to argue British politics is competent but insisting we stop examining events at the end of 2015. That isn't going to work.
When Pandaren were announced, speculation ran rampant as to what the future neutral races added to the game could be. Seven and a half years and not one neutral addition. Not a single one. When the Allied race system debuted they returned to offering faction locked pairs. Technically there shouldn't be any issue with a shared Allied race, but they have refused to add any. And specifically cited faction diversity when asked about Alliance High Elves.
We have four sets of new races since MOP where Blizzard could have opted to add a neutral race and in each case, faction locked races that protected faction diversity were selected. There are probably two more such sets to come. I suspect they will also be faction locked.
Every time Blizzard launched an expansion was an opportunity to add a new neutral race. WOD and Legion both passed by without them. Your point about the current expansion involving a faction war that doesn't facilitate neutral races is...inexplicable because the only neutral race that has joined the game so far, the Pandaren, were added during the last major war between the Alliance and the Horde. Maybe you remember it and if you don't, you can see it playing out in all the zones revamped by the Cataclysm. Or you can visit Theramore crater. In fact when Chris Metzen announced Mists of Pandaria, he hyped up the faction war aspect of it 'red and blue are going to get it on' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAz1...X&index=2&t=0s). When the Pandaren visit their faction capitals for the first time, they are explicitly warned against fraternizing with the enemy,
To cite the faction war of BFA as a factor stopping the addition now and that the conclusion of this war will open the way to future neutral races displays an ignorance of the circumstances of Mists of Pandaria. The faction war is no barrier to the addition of a neutral race whether core or allied, because the only time they did it they did it turning the faction war. The real barrier to neutral races remains what they consistently tell you what it is, but which you stretch every sinew to avoid hearing. That neutral races weaken faction diversity and that they simply do not find that cost worth it.
Has anyone come out and stated the development team weren't keen on the Monk class?
Has anyone come out and stated that a new non hero class was a bad idea that damaged some other critical aspect of the game?
They did state sharing a race between the factions wasn't a good idea. And because they stated keeping the factions distinct was important to them when selecting Allied races. If at some point they offer evidence regarding non hero classes being bad for the game, then you will be able to make that comparison.
But as they have offered evidence that neutral races didn't work and have not provided evidence non hero classes don't work, your comparison is spurious. This is a perfect example of a false equivalence.
Ion's statement, Ghostcrawler's statement, Ghostcrawler's elaboration, seven years of no new neutral races and an allied race system that doesn't need them.
Actions and words from Blizzard and by Blizzard.
But as I stated earlier, a new neutral race is theoretically possible. But so is me winning the lotto.