Is -rd reliable as a new league mode? - An examination and discussion

A few days ago a disturbing article for the competitive DotA scene was published; The (not so) Perfect Blend. As a response, Drayich shared some of his thoughts with the public about emphasizing -rd instead of -apxl. The article can be read here.
The main reason was to shorten the games by eliminating up to 30 minutes of drafting which intends to attract more players and spectators alike. One could say that the secondary argument is to bring new excitement into the DotA community by changing the mode to a new. After all, changes create interest.

In other words, playing -rd (with still-to-be-defined rules of picking and banning) based on Drayich's ideas aims to attract more attention for both spectators and players as well as introducing new and different excitement through new kind of games, picks, strategies and playstyles.

However, one could bring up several discussions, arguments and critiques as to why we should stick to -apxl. First of all, one could say that the differences for the spectator who is watching an online game being played e.g. on GGTV are minimal. The common spectator who watches a match online from his own computer has no feeling himself concerning the drafting phase in -apxl because this is done before the actual match nowadays. In other words, skipping this long phase would at first sight have no direct impacts on the spectators.

Secondly, judging by unofficial statements from people around the community, competitive players as not-so-competitive players, drafting in -apxl is a game itself. Though -rd at the first impression would bring more excitement and difference into the league games because of the variety in the picks, -apxl seems to be much more strategically and theoretically based.
Due to the mode's extent hero- and strategy wise, it seems to have a lot more background thoughts and much more preparation than the -rd mode. Seeing that DotA, viewed by the player himself, is a game based on strategy more than coincides compared to that - apxl seems to favour the strategy and background thoughts more than -rd does - many people seem to consider the current mode as its own game.

One of the situations where the -rd mode would seem to have much more interest though is during the offline events like ESWC where the game has actual physical spectator appearances that are also affected by the -apxl mode's drastic "pre-wait times".

There are doubts, however, that this game is a perfect example of how simple and quick the playstyles can change even within the same version. The discussion about converting from -apxl to -rd still remains open. With its either supporting or refusing debates that have started recently there are no doubts that we will see a lot more hot comments from the community on this topic. This game might very well either have opened a whole new path to a completely different way of playing or possibility of converting into commonly using -rd as the default league mode in the near future.