Yes, indeed. That’s why I very much respect your standpoint defending minamino while myself defending blok45 on this very topic, as we probably share similar views in most other issues.
When it comes to mismanagement, I surely had my horrible moment when I was so careless in forgetting to renew contracts of several players before end of last season, resulting in an extremely horrible draw in the Cup this season (122%, drawn with 148% plus no less than 10x teams of 115%-133%). Already managed 2 comeback draws of 1-1 & 2-2 in 2nd legs after comfortable 1st leg wins, with the 2-2 game with 23 shots and only 4 on target (typical troll game but managed to scrape through it). Expecting every Cup round to be a real fight, and the final will be either of 2 tankers (typical level 4 account which started back 18 & 9 seasons ago and stayed forever). Again it is a huge motivation for me to beat this type of abusing tankers to give them a lesson (that a not-too-bad manipulator could beat an abusing tanker). It will be some achievement if I could keep the unbeaten run going this season to beat a 25% better team.
Records alone is not a useful indicator of how good a manager is. Managers who play it tough with no manipulation or tanking whatsoever will not have a full trophy cabinet and a higher % of losses with the extremely competitive nature. Would be great if there is a stat indicator to show the average quality difference of opponents throughout seasons for us to appreciate and compare.
In terms of Nordeus, I never hold back in criticising them at all (at least a few times every season). An employee of theirs would not be so blunt in criticism and also so revealing about all the possible ways of getting the maximum benefits as freeloaders (I never pay money on this game and never will, because this game can be won fairly without any spending at all). They probably dislike me way more than other forumers as a freeloader should not be able to compete at such rate, which is really the counter-productive to their marketing on premiums and monthly add-ons. (How on earth a level-1 freeloader account can win top prize of KoK? Would they like that?)
With matches, for me, both formation and tactics are equally extremely important. Losing either completely will definitely lose us the match easily. Say if you play a 4-5v-1, and I play a 4-1-3-1AML-ST(skewed left) with equally same stat players, I can guarantee you the latter formation team will win 4/5 times easily, no matter what tactics the former team uses or changes. But when 2 formations are not perfect counter of each other, then the manager who has the better tactics would win. Maybe we could play some friendlies on end day of season to try this out (KoK was extremely boring, but it is a very useful battlefield to verify on perfect counter formations, providing that our team is versatile enough to change and try repeatedly - my team is set up in a way to play every single possible formation, except 3 STs [Yes, not exaggerating every]).
And about your last point about HK & China. Just to state facts and not trying to stir unnecessary conflicts or arguments from mainlanders. Not about who is ‘better’ or ‘worse’, but about the difference:
It all depends on a few things, such as if the person was born before 97, what kind of upbringing the person had, what kind of schools the person attended then, and then what kind of environment the person spends his/her life in.
Typically, the earlier from 97 a person was born, the higher likely the chance the person received education under British colonial rule, which tends to teach more about freedom than nationality; (because colonial rule purposefully conveys less nationalism with more freedom for easier rule then)
Upbringing depends on parents and family, and their values all stem from their own education and life; (not difficult to find out how it works with influx in 60 & 70s)
Schools’ choice like those typically started by Western clerics in 1900s, which often attracted the better talents back in the older days, could also convey more messages about choices and morality with a relatively high level acceptance of different values and development in talents other than just academics;
And then it was and still is popular with HK parents sending kids overseas for higher education, which may further broaden their mindset and adopt even more Western values (eg. Cheating is really wrong, so at least don’t do it even when you can stop others doing it [socially unacceptable] Vs Cheating is common in some aspects in China so join cheating will be easier than not doing it [an environment-forced decision])
Probably the above alone would infuriate a lot of mainlanders already and start claiming HK is now under China rule, etc. One has to understand a few current generations of some 6m+ population who had a very high tendency to accept and embrace different values in most corners of the world are more likely to live with their learned values and way of life gained through years of education and adult life, but not switching to a totally different kind of value, language and other ways of life with just a change of flag on the land.
That would explain the difference of why HK people are different, because they were brought up in a different environment living a different way of life. Again, not claiming better or worse, but just different. Very, very different.