It's less personal bias and more personal experience and me watching others. Original DB have been all bench useless except for Miccy, Nolan and Sothe for me.
I've seen people defeating Ike, but it's really hard to do. Getting Aran to 20/20/1 by 3-13 is hell and means ignoring many other more useful people.
And that's hella alot of preps to do it. ''Leave Mercs weak and unequipped''. Talking about ''numbers and facts'' when you exactly did what i mentioned, blesses DB and weak/screwed mercs