Do you actually think this is going to change anything for people using third party tools ?
Because if you do think yes, then you're dreaming, this only blocks one of the most minor tools, no banhammer in sight since as they said they won't scan your PC for files, and the devs of the tools are apparently already thinking about fixes by adding stuff on the client side rather than the server side.
This is just to give hackers a tougher time for the one single tool, and they're going to find loopholes, with everything people can do with mods nowadays, it's definitely going to happen.
It doesn't cast a blanket over a burning fire, it's throwing a small glass of water.
And you say niche, maybe for you, but not for me or any of the ultimate raiders, this is thousands and thousands of players, just because we are a minority, doesn't mean it's okay to take away features that have been here ever since the start of A realm reborn and that we use all the time.
8 Waymarks in an area is a lot visually, it is common to take waymarks away if they're not needed for visibility, while savage may not need those 8 waymarks (who knows what mechanics there will be)
If they want to make their stance clear, then apply the banhammer, rather than keep saying stuff like "please don't do it" or doing things like "people are using tools to exploit a feature, rather than patch something to prevent the tool from working, let's remove the feature".
Wasephvox said it clearly earlier, they take the easy fix of removing the feature rather than making it so people can't exploit it, i do not know if it viable, i am not a programmer, but come on, a minority of raiders (which is already a minority), we are talking about a minority of a minority use a tool to automatically place waymarks and now we can't adjust them for any strat with randomness and if you think 8 waymarks (which is gonna be a pain visually, but that's not my point here) are going to cover ALL the mechanics in a 17 minutes fight (taking into account all mechanics variables due to randomness), you're sorely mistaken.
I love ultimate fights, mechanics are challenging, interesting, i especially love making strategies for my static, and this is just making it harder, forcing people to do less elaborate and in ultimates most likely, less consistent strategies.
It doens't matter the reason, it isn't a question about cheating here.
It is a question that they are removing a feature that has been there since the beginning, that have been allowing people to make strategies ever since the start of raiding in this game away and that is it.
What's next, remove the ability to see what damage your ability does so that ACT can't know what your DPS is ?
Remove cast times of boss and the entire "Battle" chat box so tools can't read it for triggers ?