Nice post Nail, but I disagree with some parts of your "better equipment" bit, without a doubt, keyboards with no keylock are easier to rope with than keyboards with keylock, and most keyboards without keylock do cost more, not that it matters because like I said, I bought a £5 keyboard, which Spacebar sucks, but using keychanger Left Control makes it perfect, I totally agree modifying your own keyboard, in any way that doesn't rid the need of skill should be legit, and it pretty much is anyway, more generally speaking though, the best quality things in life are more expensive, that's just the way it is, but like you said, money isn't worth any amount when/where raw natural talent and skill is needed.
I think "fast taps" are more useful in TTRR than in Roper, especially if it's a tight RR map, if you know what I mean?
In Roper, for me it's all about quickly observing where my crate lands, and deciding which moves to use to collect it and get back as fast as possible with as little risk as possible, when I have an easy crate, I will literally slow right down and act as if I have all day, like if it's a crate possible to collect and attack in 5-6 seconds, i'll still take as close to 15 seconds as possible to do the job, if I have a hard crate, I try to use as little connections of the rope as possible, instead of doing a spike, or a shadow, i'll try and fly down without even doing a spike/shadow, by doing this it gives you the right momentum to pick the crate up and throw yourself back up, saving very valuable seconds.
I see so many Ropers see a hard crate, and do like 20 taps along the roof thinking it made them faster, but it doesn't lol, I think it's perfection seeing someone rope so slow, yet get from A to B and back and attack so fast and efficiently...