For me this scene is now, with version 5.2, worth a 5/5 rating.
It was not before, let me explain why:
I would have not rated it good in the early versions (So I did not rate at all), simply because technically it was a mess. Primary reason being the bad dependencies. I also run into the problem that it did not run properly in edit mode which is now fixed.
I think doing quality control by testing the scene in a clean VAM-installation before uploading would have helped to catch many problems. Considering that thousand of people download this and potentially run into issues or download unnecessary dependencies, messing up their VAM-installation, that's very bad and always a big red flag for me.
Now I hope I do not come across like an asshole for being very critical. The scene itself is indeed very well animated. Unlike other creators who have scenes on the Hub with 100+ dependencies, completely broken because they lack the skills/knowledge to fix their mess, you (ascorad) fixed it over time and it became a "Must Have".
So at the end - Good work and Thank You!
I guess a reason why it's so popular, is because it combines a lot of elements that people like in VR:
-It's POV and has a good camera perspective for immersion.
-The animation is in sync to the music with eye candy effects.
-It's interactive allowing you control. (unlike watching 'fixed' mocap where some interaction is just lost)
Your criticism is 100% valid and in no way makes you look like an asshole. I agree with every point you made. My first few uploads were really poorly optimized and that's on me for not doing enough research ahead of time. I read about how to create a var, but didn't bother looking into how to create a quality var. I was initially hesitant (or just too lazy) to create a separate clean install of VaM but I quickly learned how incredibly important that is to creating good content. I'm honestly a little embarrassed about how insane the dependencies were in the beginning (I think it was close to a hundred), and especially the situation I got myself into back when the updated var was dependent on a previous version of itself! But, in the end it turned into something that I'm really proud of and the criticism I received is THE reason why it turned out exponentially better. I couldn't have brought it to this point without the negative feedback in addition to the help that several other creators offered up in the discussion. In my opinion, if you're going to be a creator of anything, you shouldn't accept praise unless you're also willing to accepting criticism or even just plain negative feedback.
Thanks so much for the in-depth review. It's appreciated very much, and I'm truly humbled hearing it referred to as a "must have". It really means the world. Thank you!! :)