I'm excited to play A17, but overall I'd say I've been disappointed with the streams. Not disappointed with the game. Disappointed with the players.
I'm left wondering what sort of play style most people have had up to now, and how much they may have been relying on exploits or console commands.
The game is not making unreasonable demands on players. The players are failing to engage with urgency and with accuracy.
Whenever I play I play with urgency. Every moment is employed with a purpose. The only time I'm idle is to regain stamina, or to plan/study my options. Yet I see so many streamers just standing idle during the most productive and safe daylight hours. Sure, some of them are interacting with others watching their stream, but they're still wasting the day away.
I've seen people with 130 arrows refuse to engage the horde because they don't want to 'lose' their arrows. Yet they can recover those arrows in the morning, or if they dare to do a run-through, they can recover a valuable quantity during the fight.
I normally deal with 100% of a horde with just arrows or xbow, and thats from when the arrows couldn't be recovered.
They gripe about the XP needed to advance, yet they shy away from the battles that will gain them XP.
I suppose part of the problem may be that your typical streamer is more an entertainer than a hardcore player.
They might play a lot of games, but those games might not normally be 7D2D, and they've come into the streams quite rusty with the game, which has not done the game the credit it deserves.
I honestly hope TFP don't nerf the difficulty too much before release on the basis of these rather pathetic players on the streams.