I have a great deal of sympathy with your original complaint, Hanzi - and not just "because the stats have changed again".
One of the most important parts of any game (especially any "strategy" game) is the consistency of its "storyline". Making changes to this "basic" part of the game is very dangerous - especially if there's no way to explain the changes in the context of the game.
We all accept that the stats need to be amended from time to time (for balancing purposes and also to prevent boredom setting in) but those amendments should always be consistent with the internal storyline of the game - or at least be a justifiable development (not contradiction) of that storyline.
My point, in essence, is that the story should be prominently displayed in the advertising material for the game - and in the early stages of the sign-up process for new players. This should then be developed in the manual to give the "basic" characteristics of each race (the parts that Hanzi believes we shouldn't mess with) so that new players can make choices based on information which bears at least some resemblance to the actual gameplay. That way they can at least have a reasonable understanding of what to expect.
The intricacies of the stats themselves can then be studied by more experienced players who can come up with advanced tactics and strategies - but changes to those stats should always be constrained by both the story and the basics.
Just my two-penn'orth.
