Why why why is a soft fork so much better than a hard fork?? Jesus, I can't understand these bitcoin core people. Why is it so much better that you prefer to overcomplicate the code to achieve something simple just so it will be technically a soft fork?

It's so lame. You can always write "valid" where the old nodes are looking and implement a completely different logic elsewhere;  and for this you pat yourself on the back and say "we managed to do it with a soft fork!"?

What do you gain? more nodes that say "valid" no matter what?  You could add a million of those whenever you want.

And anyone who wants to split an old node from the network just sends it a transaction that is valid in the old rules but not new.