Just because they are prepared doesn't mean they should be prepared. No RP comes with the expectation that you test your patience by being in the queue for months. Just because they were expecting that doesn't mean they should. That's a ridiculous notion to consider in and of itself.
I believe the queue is around 40% of the game's size. While there is the fact that you (assuming you are the same anon) pointed out that new teams take a lot of shuffling, that was the case when the game opened. Turquoise in particular changed a lot. Peridot did, too. Ruby has, as well. In all these cases, the teams have shifted into having very well-defined identities.
The game should have new teams. I can't see the reasoning for not having it unless the game will seem unwieldy, but there is no way for anyone to play with everyone else. Ideally the game should not need more than two teams. I don't believe cutting the third character cap would help, because I think only around five characters would be lost in the queue, and not many in the game proper. Also, forcing a player to drop their character is rude. I am not saying you suggested that, but it is a possible implication. A player might feel guilty continuing to have a character past an obsolete rule, and that wouldn't be kind to anyone.
And returning to your "prepared to wait" note, I personally have a hard time knowing if a character will click unless I've started to play the character. While there are other options to explore how the character works, Aather is a very unique setting and you can't "test-drive" the character, so to speak. Thus, the expectation of waiting becomes all the more unusual given the circumstances. If it was a different game where you could scratch your itch to see if you should wait to get in, I absolutely understand. However, the conditions of Aather don't make that possible.
I know that there is no perfect solution, but it is the only one that makes the most sense to some of the playerbase. Talking about incidental circumstances of teams doesn't remove that.
Re: AATHER
Just because they are prepared doesn't mean they should be prepared. No RP comes with the expectation that you test your patience by being in the queue for months. Just because they were expecting that doesn't mean they should. That's a ridiculous notion to consider in and of itself.
I believe the queue is around 40% of the game's size. While there is the fact that you (assuming you are the same anon) pointed out that new teams take a lot of shuffling, that was the case when the game opened. Turquoise in particular changed a lot. Peridot did, too. Ruby has, as well. In all these cases, the teams have shifted into having very well-defined identities.
The game should have new teams. I can't see the reasoning for not having it unless the game will seem unwieldy, but there is no way for anyone to play with everyone else. Ideally the game should not need more than two teams. I don't believe cutting the third character cap would help, because I think only around five characters would be lost in the queue, and not many in the game proper. Also, forcing a player to drop their character is rude. I am not saying you suggested that, but it is a possible implication. A player might feel guilty continuing to have a character past an obsolete rule, and that wouldn't be kind to anyone.
And returning to your "prepared to wait" note, I personally have a hard time knowing if a character will click unless I've started to play the character. While there are other options to explore how the character works, Aather is a very unique setting and you can't "test-drive" the character, so to speak. Thus, the expectation of waiting becomes all the more unusual given the circumstances. If it was a different game where you could scratch your itch to see if you should wait to get in, I absolutely understand. However, the conditions of Aather don't make that possible.
I know that there is no perfect solution, but it is the only one that makes the most sense to some of the playerbase. Talking about incidental circumstances of teams doesn't remove that.