For the datastorm numbers, it's not that "bigger is worse", it's a ratio of the steering numbers to each other and to the mass. I'm not sure what the formula is, but I have seen it around.
And as I understood it, VHFs were supposed to be superiority fighters. IE, meant to take out LFs, HFs, and other VHFs. Paladin was not designed as a "response" to the superior Chimera. Read the infocard, they were old fighters pulled out of storage because of losses during the war.
And by playtesting, I meant the sort of playtesting the balance team does. Do 5 1v1 matches, then switch fighters with the other guy and do 5 again. Then do some 2v2 matches. Look at the results then. It's still not a statistically significant sample size, but it's a lot better than single battles.
