OneOfTheQ, great post but I have a bone to pick with one of your points.
I generally don't believe in comparisons to ICC but that's another story. Here though, the comparison you made is certainly not proportional:
"To make another comparison to ICC, there the pools are far more popular than tournaments, with both being less popular than regular seeks (although like here, a much higher proportion of strong players play in the pools)."
Tournaments on ICC are not one bit like lichess's Arena tournaments! The fact is that most players get the same rush from playing in tournaments as they do from auto-matching in pools.
Personally, I don't think people see the benefit of pools over standard matchmaking. They don't see it as much of a challenge, and, unlike on ICC, Lichess players have probably not watched 20 GMs emphasise the fine points of pools and why they are purportedly a better metric than using the lobby.
Unlike with tournaments, pools offer rating progression and no big prize at the end (in the form of having your name on the home page or being at the top of the list). They don't feel recognised for their effort unless they get in the top 10, much like with playing games on the site normally.
Which brings me to my last point, that was discussed to death before the pools implementation was put into place. What people are really looking for is a simple auto-matching system, not something segregated from the rest of the site. They want to match-make seamlessly, Xbox Live-style with the click of a button based on their set preferences. I came up with a basic idea of how to retain the lobby and have optional matchmaking on top, though I've lost my rather basic mockups of that, now.
TL;DR: We need to think out of the box and realise what draws people into pools. Pools are not popular because they're not different (apart from being segregated, a negative) or better enough than what's normal (lobby/tournaments) on Lichess.
I generally don't believe in comparisons to ICC but that's another story. Here though, the comparison you made is certainly not proportional:
"To make another comparison to ICC, there the pools are far more popular than tournaments, with both being less popular than regular seeks (although like here, a much higher proportion of strong players play in the pools)."
Tournaments on ICC are not one bit like lichess's Arena tournaments! The fact is that most players get the same rush from playing in tournaments as they do from auto-matching in pools.
Personally, I don't think people see the benefit of pools over standard matchmaking. They don't see it as much of a challenge, and, unlike on ICC, Lichess players have probably not watched 20 GMs emphasise the fine points of pools and why they are purportedly a better metric than using the lobby.
Unlike with tournaments, pools offer rating progression and no big prize at the end (in the form of having your name on the home page or being at the top of the list). They don't feel recognised for their effort unless they get in the top 10, much like with playing games on the site normally.
Which brings me to my last point, that was discussed to death before the pools implementation was put into place. What people are really looking for is a simple auto-matching system, not something segregated from the rest of the site. They want to match-make seamlessly, Xbox Live-style with the click of a button based on their set preferences. I came up with a basic idea of how to retain the lobby and have optional matchmaking on top, though I've lost my rather basic mockups of that, now.
TL;DR: We need to think out of the box and realise what draws people into pools. Pools are not popular because they're not different (apart from being segregated, a negative) or better enough than what's normal (lobby/tournaments) on Lichess.