1.Rule changes made TT "too repetitive"?
No. If we would still playing with 38mm ball, speed glued rubbers 21pt games, the players would perfect the styles anyway. It was just matter of time. It another question if these changes are good for TT or not.
2.Everyone plays the same style?
No. Two winged offensive style dominates the TT world, but nearly everyone does it in an unique way. Marcos Freitas is a two winged looper and Dimitrij Ovcharov also. They play the same way? Of course not! And Shibaev, Gauzy, Dyas, Boll, Mengel, Niwa, Yoshimura, Youngsik? All different.
3.Why are there so few defender?
There are choppers and lobbers. We are talking about the last 20 years and lobbing was not a recommended style even then. Ouaiche does it, Mattenet too.
Choppers: well, defenders have a disadvantage. Classical defence is only among the women. BUT: There is only a few coach who teach chopping. Even ex-choppers teach offensive table tennis. Because they see that offense is 'better' than defence. If chopping would have a strong basis in professional youth training and not just one or two player, I am sure that
we could find a lot more talented chopper, sooner or later even top 10 ones.
3.The chinese plays all the same?
Chinese are well known for that only the players with the possibly most perfect technique can reach good results. Due to their scientific support and very well organized training programs, they play more similar to each other than euro/etc. players. However the most of them is still different, look at ML, XX, ZJK, FB, LGY...
4.Different style= not boring?
No. Creativity is the key. Two chinese with similar style can play a very-very exiting match, while a match featuring a short pips hitter against a spinny looper can be boring.
5. XX's game is spin based so the new ball destroys him?
No. His opponents learned his patterns. I've wrote about that, so here I won't detail it.
6.Final thoughts:
Somehow I feel that there isn't as much good tournament. I really don't know what sucks, but I miss the mood of WTTCs during the 2013-15 period (I follow table TT since 2012 Olypics, that's why 2013). I've seen the olypics and last year's WTTC... well, there were good matches, but they didn't kept me hot.
Finally there is my favourite player, Kenta Matsudaira, who is one of the most creative players (and he still develops his game). This tribute also great to show how can clever players use the disadvantages of a FH based player: