It's not the you can't talk about it, it's the way things are, how they are brought up, and when.
Absolutely under any circumstances should tier lists & nerfs/buffs be an important discussion this early into a games life. The game needs to breath, tech needs to be discovered & ways to "kombat" issues needs to be found. But it's the resorting to asking for nerfs & buffs because a player wants to take the easy route out instead of putting in the time to figure out ways to get around it. The "I can't beat it so fix/remove it" mentality is not a good thing for anyone in this community. Now having mature discussions to figure out how to maybe as a last resort fix something, YES, please discuss it, talk about it, but the crying, whining, ranting........no, just NO.
But good stuff Jeremiah. Thanks for posting this.