Those that have interacted with me in Discord text channels know how insufferable I've been for the past two years (and still going, I'm just a stubborn soul). Some of the time, I've been backing my wild thoughts and opinions based on content creators and their thoughts. Someone can easily can write this off as "your opinion bro" or "it's not ALL content creators" or "my favorite content creator isn't like that", and I know it doesn't apply to all, but there are a few that make what I believe a noticeable impact.
In Sea of Thieves, there is meant to be 1 overall playstyle, but in reality, there's a ton, and here's 3 I will highlight coming from Twitch's SoT scene. Casual, Hunter and Well-Rounded. Content creators can fit any of these roles whenever they want no matter how big, small, popular, or unpopular they are. They play how they like because of the game's excellent design in freedom. However, most of these playstyles I listed have a "hidden" con within them.
Casual playstyles, are great relaxing watches where you can joke around, have a good laugh, maybe keg each other when no one is prepared for it, etc.
A con though, is opinions and execution related to combat. Some may not see it, or care much about it, but you'd be surprised to see how your favorite content creator might react to a fight they have no legitimate way of winning. I know I could be in trouble for this, but an ex-NAL player known as Lt Loot pointed this out recently in a ranting stream (that currently has a VOD available | MAJOR WARNING: A metric ton of swearing in this VOD). His VOD goes into a fight where a casual content creator, as a Grade V Reaper, is met with a crew of incredibly skilled hunters, in which they struggled to deal any considerable damage and wound up giving up a loot haul on board in order to not say face to sinking to players that are double gunning, and to their assumptions, exploiting via the consistently debunked "quick swap" maneuver. This might look bad on the casual end, but I don't even want to offer a VOD for the next group I'm going to highlight.
Hunter playstyles are quite simple. Log onto a session, see if a boat is doing something relatively valuable and attempt to go steal it. Hunters are usually categorized as Server Hoppers, and depending on the content creator, not a damn Death Defier will survive an inevitable fight against a skilled player with months to years of constant PvP experiences behind their back. Hunter playstyles seem to be the most consistently popular type of streams seen on twitch, as it's back to back attempts at PvP fights with crews of any size against crews of any size.
The major con to this playstyle is hatred. Think about it. You've seen the numerous threads about pirates wanting a change to the way the Devil's Shroud works (pushing loot back into playable territory), ways to make the Reaper's Bones a "PvP-Only" trading company (can't alliance/loot can only be stolen to progress the flag's grade or be sold to the Servant), constant asks to make quality of life fixes such as the impossible-to-fix hit registration, the sixth ship, the return of a PvP mode to have back-to-back fights, fixing infinite black screens etc. PvP players, especially solo PvP players, are miserable because of the expected imbalance of some crew size fights, or what they may consider the "cowardly" playstyles less-experienced crews are performing in a combat encounter (items on anchor, sudden 2 ships vs 1 ship fights, endless running with no sign of giving up despite being clearly marked on the map, etc.) Some streamers will just consistently complain and bad talk the game and devs because of the constant frustrations they have with the game. This playstyle also get a bad reputation to casuals because a lot of hunters are inherited with extremely great aiming accuracy, especially when they are Double Gunning. Some would say "play something else", but the hatred towards the flaws of the game, to them, is a sign of genuine love they have for the game because there's nothing else like it, it can't be abandoned for something different because it's currently exclusively unique (and popular enough for anyone to get views on just by participating exclusively in this playstyle).
TL;DR
Casual playstyles can be criticized because some of the most popular creators not only stand by the "have fun" mentality despite the game's endless shortcomings, but the unfair berating of the opposite playstyle due to their preference in weapon loadout.
Hunter playstyles are more engaging to watch just for the endless action alone, but it's depressing when the content creator cracks and explodes in a rant about how terrible the game has become because of bugs they have died/sunk to, especially against players they have judged as worse in combat.
The common playstyle I see portrayed here on the forums is the "Well-Rounded" playstyle, as players here don't seem to care about the shortcomings of the game's combat as much (at least without getting their thread locked/hidden for breaking forum rules), and enjoy different facets of the game no matter how mundane it may feel (likely because Well-Rounded playstyles choose when they want to play the game and attempt to have fun with however long they intend to play it for). On Twitch, this can be seen, but it depends on the personality of the content creator themselves. It lacks cons because this playstyle approaches the game as "pick up and play", finding something fun to do for an hour or three, maybe sink and lose everything, maybe rule the server with an unbreakable alliance and make 500K gold (until everyone gets tired and logs off for the session). Ultimately, this playstyle benefits in the target demographic having friends to bring for the ride, or can be well-entertained by their stream chat's community/their own personality.
Overall though, I see some of these personalities as genuinely damaging to anyone trying to get a proper first impression or an opinion of this game. Casuals will want to only play passively and think Double Gunning hunters are griefers. Hunters will have a love hate relationship with the game, all while succumbing to the worst bugs the game has in store at the worst times possible. I know my lifeline on this game is currently Twitch brainrot and the small group of friends I may sail with wanting to goof about/hunt or do the newest content the game has to offer, but what are your thoughts on this spaghetti brained attempt at explaining the odd crossroads of playstyles between content creators? Content creators seem to be treated as the major backbone to the game's presence and exposure. The way they can communicate their likes and dislikes of the game can lead to a fan community making up the "vocal" opinions we bicker about to this very day.