Pretty sure Kayaba introduced [Titles] specifically in response to Diabel asking Shirou to dial it back lest he bring down the balance hammer on all of them. Cool magecraft is already encouraged through exotic challenges requiring exotic solutions, plus meaty xp bonuses for spell development and spell sharing.
It's interesting to me that you see things things this way when I'm pretty sure you were in TFF's idea thread when Daniel explained to us what Titles were meant to represent.
I mean, if Arturia Pendragon was a player, do you really think she wouldn't have a Title just because technically anyone can lean Prana Brust and pick up a Sword?
Would Sasaki Koujiro have a Title even if he doesn't really use Magecraft at all?
Because the thing is, I think nobody in this chapter got it right because I'm pretty sure that Saber would have a Title and Koujiro wouldn't.
Because as fucking broken and irrepeatable as Koujiro was... he isn't using Magecraft. And the Death Game is all about Magecraft.
Kayaba doesn't
approve, like at all, if you break the game using the physics system or swordsmanship or engineering or whatnot.
You can be smashed to bits by the [Nerf Hammer] for all he cares if you're doing that.
Meanwhile, while Saber is doing things that
technically are just brute-forcing strength by extruding Prana like crazy... Not everyone can be Saber.
And Kayaba wants you to try and be Saber. The last thing he wants is people being afraid of trying to be Saber or Shirou or any other Magecraft-using freak because of [Cardinal].
Also, I don't think that giving everyone Unlimited Blade Works would make them better at using it than Shirou, or even anywhere close to it.
I'm pretty sure that Shirou would still be broken, because UBW it's the crystallization of who he is and he is the protagonist on top, but I can't really say the same about others.
So, yeah, Shirou isn't completely correct, but he has a point about Klein's approach to killing bosses and why it won't ever get him a Title.
EDIT: Yeah, in retrospect, I'm replying less to the segment I quoted and more to your first post about this.
Also, Shirou doesn't have any cool magecraft, to put it bluntly. The vast majority of what he does is, as far as the playerbase can tell, just being really good at basics like Reinforcement, plus an insane amount of personal combat ability. If the purpose of giving him his [Title] was to promote cool new magecraft, it was an abject failure from the start and Kayaba might as well have given one to the Slime Farmer.
That's because Kirito's theory is entirely based on his understanding of Kayaba and not at all in actual evidence.
I mean, there are two Titled players, one is basically everything a normal player is but
more (Shirou) and the other is a girl that got so lucky with the RNG that he thinks she is in cahoots with the GM.
That's it.
Kayaba does know about Shirou's "database" though, he is aware that he does in fact have something unique about him, that he has like the coolest of Magecrafts.
So far Kirito's theory checks out, doesn't it?
But what about Ilya? I mean, for other players, her Title is just something born out of her luck or shady connections, isn't it?
Oh, but Kayaba know who she is. He know that, even if she doen't have any right now, there is nothing stopping her from building a Familiar Army, begin twisting the simulated geomancy of a floor, making a bullshit Formalcraft ritual or any other normal magus method to break his game like a wet noodle.
Ilya has the
skill of a Sorceress, even if she doesn't actually care enough to do anything with it.
Take into account... These are things
anyone can do. I didn't mention anything that would be a particular secret of the Eizenberns or depending on their Sorcery Traits or anything like that.
She is just that good.
If tomorrow Ilya decides to do any of that, Kayaba wants the players to imitate her, not to cower in fear of upsetting the GM.
As for the future... Let's return to my previous example:
First, we'll leave Saber aside because she is too special.
If Sasaki Koujiro, a mundane human with a sword, was a player... Could any of the other players get as good as him if he honestly tried to teach them the Tsubame Gaeshi?
No, because not everyone will have what it takes or the will to spend their time and effort on something as insane as that.
If someone, let's say Kirito, gets
really good with normal, run of the mill Magecraft instead of a very long sword... Do you think Kayaba is going to punish the rest of the players for it? Or will instead give them a Title regardless of how "cool" or "irrepeatable" their Magecraft is.
Remember that Magecraft is much more idiosyncratic than swordsmanship, even if you stick to things everyone can do, it's much easier for you to be the only one who can be as good as you are in something.
And given that what matters to him is how good/effective you are at Magecraft and not how good a killer you are... Do you really think he won't give Titles to people dedicated to research or crafting if they actually achieve something that he thinks is
worthy of it?
I mean, Slime Breeder is cool and all, but he is just like Klein. He is doing basic genetics and playing around with game mechanics at this point.
His Magecraft research is shit.
Like, why would Kayaba give him a Title? What has he done to deserve it?
From his perspective, Shirou is doing shit even
he doesn't understand. Slime Breeder? Is he even making anything apart from basic potions and explosives?
