I'm just going to write here what I wrote elsewhere:
GW have stated that the reason they reduced options in the codex is so that 'new players aren't forced to kitbash'.
Let's leave aside for a moment just how moronic that statement is (especially given that many GW kits are designed to be interchangeable in the first place). So, GW don't want to make things too complicated for new players. Okay. Except instead new players are faced with:
- An index with some rules.
- A codex that overwrites those rules except when it doesn't.
- A statement (helpfully not in the FAQ section) that explained that you could use stuff from the index if it didn't appear in the codex except then you used the index abilities except you then might get some abilities from the codex anyway. Also, you need to have the correct vintage models otherwise you're not allowed to do this at all.
- Now we have this latest sort-of-FAQ-but-not-exactly which provides a bloody flowchart to explain when to use stuff from the codex and when to use stuff from the index.
Is this really simpler than just putting the options in the codex in the first place?