In beta 3 it seems that the player base is dividing into two disparate groups with not much in between. You have the good players, who generally know what items to get, how to play their character, etc... and you have the bad players who are comparatively clueless. Now over time, bad players can get an idea of how to play a specific demigod, gameplay wise, by observing how the better players that they are matched with play those demigods.
The part that is missing however, is that it is not easily observable how those players are building up their demigod in terms of items and skills. Right now, it takes a much more advanced player to be able to deduce what items the opposing Demigod has by simply watching the game. A newer player is not going to quickly figure out that their DG is moving 25% slower because the opponent has the slowing gloves, or that they can't cast as quickly as normal because they are getting mini-stunned by their opponent's mage-slayer. Many games end with one side dominating the other, and leaving the people on the losing side without much idea what they did wrong. (Unless the winners decide to share their knowledge).
Skills are generally easier to distinguish because they have more pronounced effects, but for a newer player who hasn't yet had a chance to practice each and every Demigod, this could still leave them confused as to what is going on.
One of the design principles for Demigod that has been said everywhere is that it should be "easy to learn, but hard to master." The exclusion of tools such as this one that facilitate users in learning and adapting to opponent's strategies over time, greatly hurt the "easy to learn" part of that motto.
I don't expect this to be a popular change with everyone, especially after seeing the debate that went on about showing opponent's mana. As a compromise this possibly could be allowed/disallowed under game options for custom games, or possibly the opponents items/skills are only available.
The general goal for the Demigod community as a whole IMO should be that everyone can at least play moderately well without investing too much time into learning the complexities of the game. By moderately well, I mean that against the majority of teams, they aren't going to feed, die unneccessarily to towers, etc... The real challenge for a demigod player should be moving from the moderate skill level into the upper tiers of competitors through skill instead of item builds. By allowing lower level players access to the strategies of higher level players, this dynamic could be more easily achieved.
