Elvira
formerly bruised
I'd like to chime in and analyze some key points that you have contributed to the counter argument of NDM being playable for MPL.I agree several of my points have not been throughoutly explained so I will do my best to elaborate them further:
"Competitive engagement" as in tournaments that are outside the premier leagues it is featured: There is no "NDM Cup" to tell us which players are or not prepared, nor an incentive for players within Monotype community to play this tier at all. Part of the reason is that NDM only exists conceptually and not physically: you cannot play it on cartridge, and thus it will never receive official metagame treatment. Even amongst the players that you have mentioned (some of which are part of NDM council so they technically should not count), there is no guarantee that they are experienced at it just because they are established figures in our community. Playing NDM in some tour a year ago does not necessarily mean you are confident to help your team prep for it now or within a month, nor to play it in its highest level, regardless of how good said players are in current gens or oldgens even. Also when you say "some are mainers" you are essentially just proving my point earlier that select individuals will be favored.
Regardless of separating it from the monotype community or not, you have to agree that players that display an interest in NDM only represent a small part of it, and the vast majority of our tier is not actually committing to it (either because of the opportunities offered or because interest displayed in general). This is the same as saying "splitting mono UU or mono STABmons community doesn't make sense" and actually supporting these tiers for MPL. MPL is a high stakes tournament that should represent the monotype community, not a niche-interest of players within monotype. . I am not going to comment on the "most mono auths are also ndm auths" because that certainly should not be related in whether it is a playable slot or not.
Finally, from a spectator perspective, it requires the understanding of the artificial concept of National Dex, which people may not be familiar with. This may not sound like a great deal at first glance but it affects the integrity of the tournament, it is meant to represent Monotype (a metagame which is not the most well seen amongst the other metas in Smogon). Mixing NDM is taking a step towards making MPL just another side PL tournament, and not its own thing.
1. "you cannot play it on cartridge". This argument seems counter productive of what you specifically are implying. And let me address it in better terms. Stating something is not playable on cartridge doesn't really matter. You can run monotype on the device and rom/rom hack you choose or even play it on switch with the main stream games but end of the day that isn't the same setting as an actual tournament despite being able to uphold them on the cartridge. Two different scenarios (MPL, other tours held on cartridge). NDM provides a sense of balanced while upholding fan favorite "gimmick" or old gen mechanics with Mega's and Z-Crystals.
2. "There is no NDM cup". Essentially I would agree that you are right in that sense but NDM has different tours besides NDMPL. I believe Circuit is another and if I don't have enough examples then so be it but there are other tours aside from premier leagues.
The instance of the small community you noted is true, yes National Dex Monotype does have a smaller community from Monotype which is why I or others like to indulge Monotype to join room tours or even partake in events for it to build a more side by side community with Monotype. The reason its small is because a majority of players are still wanting to use the powerhouse level pokemon that Mono has available and not adapt back to a more balanced metagame. Which is why NDM should* be allowed to be in MPL. MWP carried NDM, ND WC carries NDM, this tier is a known meta even despite the smaller community that it carries in the room. If this tier is being carried into other tournaments some big some small I don't see a reason why a counter argument to a tier that is still in fact mono with more balance and the usage of older generation pokemon shouldn't be allowed to be played.