Making SPL into all OU or keeping it at twelve slots or whatever is invariably a short-term solution.
I feel like this statement completely ignores the potential for complementing solutions, one of which is in the OP of this thread.
The quality of games might increase with a change like this, the attention given to slots by managers might be more considerable, sure. These are all hypothetical things that could happen that are net positives with the reduction of slots/tiers. But don't be fucking stupid and claim that less slots is better for the overall of Smogon longterm. Look at literally any growing or expanding community in history and it's apparent that when growth exists, so does representation of a wider spectrum of ideas, values, and change in general. People in other communities will value other things more, but when these communities are considered to be valid and equal to each other, you cannot discount an opinion coming from a community that previously had less representation in favor of one that has always had representation. You must weigh out the benefits of both and attempt to find compromise in an attempt to appease all involved parties. Smogon in general has a difficult time with this, however the tournaments community has a unique opportunity to thrive in this manner.
These are very generalised statements you are making and I can't see how or why they should apply to the issue at hand. I would appreciate it if you could please be more specific and provide some examples.
There are numerous negative effects to increasing the number of slots per team tournament and there are superior potential solutions to handling and supporting the growth of other communities. Splitting the tournament as per the OP is one of these superior solutions in my view. There are also many benefits to restricting the number of slots and variety of tiers. Exceptional players who are strong in many mainstream tiers become much less valuable the more slots are added due to the limits of how much time they have to help their team, how much specialist knowledge is required to do so, and the fact that they can only earn one win a week through actual gameplay contributions. The ability to work as a team is lessened the more specialist tiers are added. It also becomes more difficult to manage substitutions in the event they are needed. It becomes harder to get the necessary support from within your team and can make the tournament feel like more of an individual tournament than a team tournament for some players. Teamwork in particular is something that we should be trying to enable and maximise the potential for in a team tournament.
Longterm, more slots will be better because even if it is not immediate, player skill level will always catch up to the amount of slots.
Firstly, this is again ignoring other potential solutions. Secondly, this is only one facet of the arguments against increasing the number of slots, therefore it is quite inappropriate to use this as the sole reason for stating that this is a better long term solution. Thirdly, there are certainly hypotheticals involved with what you are saying. You are assuming the community will grow and not stagnate, which requires further assumptions such as the continued activity of proactive and positive leadership that continues to attract players and develop and update resources. I'm not saying these things won't happen, just that there are not as many certainties as you are saying. This kind of thing also applies to old gens.
But don't you dare claim that it's in our best interest to sit here and ignore what will happen, regardless of what we do now.
I don't understand what you are saying here. As far as I can tell, you haven't stated what will happen or under what circumstances something will happen.
If increasing the size of the tournament seems like a good idea, then I agree with whoever mentioned additional teams rather than additional slots. There are ways around the issue of tournament length while retaining round robin format, especially since this tour is Bo1 in most tiers. One way could be to make some weeks into "super weeks" where all teams play twice.
As I have previously expressed in other places, I do find it regrettable that some lower tiers have suffered in terms of solid official tournament representation. My Smogon Tour win was in the OU/UU/Ubers format and I feel that it was that tour format that really kicked off the development of serious lower tier play in the first place. That kind of exposure is desirable for these tiers but I don't believe compromising on team tour slots is the way to achieve it.