all game have a meta.
the meta is simply a certain tactics with certain builds and it's the best builds to play in the game at the moment.

the meta is not the cookie cutter build: the meta is somethig that work well when players have a certain skill (drive vehicles or sniping or good wih assault) have coordination and know the tactis.

the meta is something that change and evolve over time: for a patch ad example or when too much player use the meta and a counter-meta start to born ( a tactics created for kill who use the meta).
when too much people learn how to counter the meta the meta evolve or change etc etc....

this happen when a game is balanced: when a game is unbalanced there is simply a top item to use.

we consider the game perfecly balanced (and the game don't want to be perfect balanced it's an asimmetric balance game) so i will ignore the potential problem of unbalance: because can be fixed/patched.

but imagine if for some stat combination the HH chaos bolter is the best weapon for medium/close combat inside base, not an OP unbalanced weapon it's have only the best combination for a certain role.

this is what a sidegrade is: an item that is specialized for some sub role a side grade can be the best weapon at 20 meter another can be the best at 40 meter another one in open space another inside building etc etc...

so we have chaos marine that have the best weapon of all the faction for combat inside building: yes chaos player can use another bolter pattern but the HH bolter give advantage in that situation.
many chaos player start to buy the HH item for that reason and start to create group for assault small base with tactical marine with HH bolter some meltagun against assault with shield or terminator that try to enter and some lascannon for long range defense.

so when a good team of 10 people with this loadout is inside a base: they are not gods or have op weapon they have the right sidegrade and tactics and they have a defensive position.
we can imagine that at least 20 player is needed for reconquer the base and kill them.

imagine now the same 10 chaos player that don't have buyed the HH sidegrade: "sidegrade are small difference only 5%-10% in stats" so instead of 20 people you need only 18-19 player for kill the fortified 10 player chaos squad.

1-2 player is not a big difference?
now multiply x 10. 100 chaos players and you need 200 instead or 180-190 players.

or imagine an huge battle inside a base with 300 chaos player: you need 600 player instead of 540-560.

40-50 player are a big difference!
TL; DR

the game is a MMO so a small difference in stat for a sidegrade translate in force multiplier.
10% more accuracy -10% rate of fire translate in 50 death players in a long range 500 vs 500 battle

10% more rate of fire -10% accuracy translate in 50 death players in a short range battle 500vs500 battle.

a sidegrade is a balanced weapon better for some role: but bad for another role.
a noob player use the wrong sidegrade an expert player use the best sidegrade for the situation (an expert player know the battlefield and the enemy tactics).

a sidegrade behind a paywall is p2w because in a huge battle a 5-10% "better in that situation" translate in 50-100 more kills.

side grade are good in a game they give variety and choose: but behind a paywall are the Faster way to reach the "this game is p2w".

I would like to see some dev handle this question not just Miguel, since we already know his opinion.

I bet we would see the answer on the next stream, since they're about to add more items. With things not being clear, adding items only makes the matter worse. Beside, this thread has been the hottest thread since yesterday, reaching 14 pages in just 1 day. Somebody must have noticed it.

Forgive me for truncating your argument but the text wall....it was too much.. .

Now you are wrong and here is why:
Only upto 5% of the player population may possess a heresy weapon at any one time thus reducing the percentages you produced in your argument to 0.somthing%'s and dropping the projected casualties of 50 from a 500v500 battle to little more then a lag kills difference. Your argument further falls on hard times when you factor in peoples organization skills, meaning that if you have a squad of 20, they are working together but they are fallible because they are people and not robots so you automatically loose some to natural attrition through incompetence/bad luck, then you add into the mix that the statistical chance of the whole 20 people having those 5% of the heresy weapons in circulation and the difference becomes so negligible that is is barely a whales fart in the whole pacific ocean, oh and i almost forgot to point out that the other side has 5% distributed throughout it's force so now the percentage differences are down to 0.00somthing%'s. If you were to look at it from a game theory perspective then sure the mental crutch of believing the enemy beat you because of "P2W" weapons might soften the psychological blow of the loss, but in actual fact the thing that might have made you loose the fight in the first place was low morale built upon the belief that the odds were stacked against you from the outset.

Yes, I'm sure it was just because fans asked you to do it. It has nothing to do with the huge amounts of money it brings in, no it was purely because a couple of fans asked you to, that's why you spent the next couple of months developing a fancy store page, slapped together $35 bolters, $450 founder packs and other silly things. You did all of this because of the fans, that's what they wanted.

And I'm getting tired of these sidegrades, especially the bike example. You could apply it to anything. Let's pretend that Terminators are store exclusive. Sure they have bigger guns, better armour and play completely differently from tactical marines, but they're slower than tactical marines, so they're totally sidegrades, guys.

Plasma gun? Sure it has a totally different playstyle from the bolter, but it has a slower rate of fire. Sidegrade.

so you are telling me that it's not behind a paywall, but a paywall AND "5% special snowflakes master race"
and also we can add the point that some item are behind a "founder only wall"

basically i'm wrong because the item shop is a lot worse respect to the simplified example i Made?

it's only a fart of a whale?
in a 500vs 500 battle
a player IS a "fart"
50 make no difference? so why we play if we Made no difference ?
why player have class and loadout if in a 500vs 500 are only fart?

all fart must be have the SAME potential.

All fart must be equal.

All fart must have access to the same sidegrade.

instead the 5% of fart have special side grade.

some fart are founder fart with unique founder fart item.

other fart simply buy item in the fartwhale shop after relase.

so we have 3 different paywall.

a massive combat it' all about small difference side grade are small difference.

if a weapon or a vehicles is a BIG difference in 500vs500 ite somehing clearly op and unbalanced

Partly. But this issue is not limited to the HH weapons, which throws your argument out of the window. There's no 5% restriction on most of the items.

I kinda wish I could use this as a signature quote xD

Can you link me this particular thread where the founder program was "demanded" by the "fans".

I've never seen such a thread.

If memory serves, much of the "demand" for exclusive gameplay mechanics came from that one poll where the majority of votes was against straight P2W weapons but for unique items for founders. Whether "unique" in this example meant "unique skin" or "unique gameplay elements" was not specified as far as I recall, so that could be a possible answer.