All the people I know who like cube the most, including myself, are super spikey. I think the reason that cube is not seen at high level events is because it has practical difficulties in running it, it doesn't make for good viewing as people are going to be less familiar with the cards and interactions, and as ahadabans said it's not good marketing, not because it doesn't appeal to spikes.
I mean, I think for many spikes/pros limited in general is their preferred format, and that wouldn't be the case if they only wanted to play formats with low variance. Having some variance doesn't stop you outplaying your opponent.
It doesn't appeal to spikes
as a serious competitive format. Based on the feedback I got from you when we did the penny league, I'm really surprised to see you dispute this. You pretty much wanted to cut all of the fun high variance cards, and when I did, my core casual audience threw a fit and I had to add them back in.
Outside of running a powered cube draft at worlds in 2012 (which mysteriously never came back), the last time WOTC ran a high variance eternal format on the competitive circuit (modern) the only people that were really happy about it were casual modern players that weren't playing in the event. WOTC hated it because it hurt their ability to market cards, and pro players hated it because the format was too high variance in matchups, which coupled with limited sb space, made tournament outcomes more dependent on lucky pairings than player skill.
Think of it, what spike, in a competitive setting, is going to seriously tell you that they want to introduce formats and mechanics that
reduce the skill threshold and warp the game around random luck.
I don't think Magic has not aged well as an e-sport. Its way too high variance for the payouts you can make, and its pretty much impossible to make a stable living off of the game. If we've going to say that a format like
legacy, with its wasteland induced negative variance and turn 1-2 combo kills, is indicative of a well balanced competitive format, or even a reasonable competitive format at that, we have to talk about what we mean by pro play and good e-sports.
But like I said, cube
can appeal to competitive play, but it would have to be designed for it, and I think it would be actively good for WOTC to replace their current competitive circuit offerings with a proctored standard cube. This provides a consistent competitive format,
and allows WOTC to market new printings. They could keep the current standard structure for FNMs, but rename it core. WOTC appears to have gone in a different--immensely awkward-- direction however, so cube is going to be left to kitchen tables and internet forums for the time being.
I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with either WOTCs need to market cards, or the pro players need to make a living, but their has to be some kind of compromise or negotiation so both sides can mutually achieve their goals. This current system kind of lets down everyone.