I think that your design must meet your team's goals for competition. For most teams out there, their goal should be to make it into the elimination rounds. My team is one of those teams, and we went through a thought process like this:
How do we get into the elimination matches? Seed in the top 8 or get picked by another team.
Which is easier at the 60+ team 10K Lakes Regional? Be picked by another team.
How do we get picked by another team?
1: Be able to score assist points quickly and effortlessly.
2: Be able to pick up off of the ground.
3: Be able to score in the low goal quickly and effortlessly.
4: Be able to catch the ball quickly and effortlessly.
The elimination alliances will need at
most 2 throwers (in teleop, not necessarily AUTO), and having 1 consistent thrower will not be uncommon. Therefore, The alliance captains will probably not weight throwing ability heavily when deciding on their second pick, but I guarantee that they will take notice of the good ball-handlers.
For teams that just want to make it into eliminations, throwing is absolutely not a requirement. However, many of the teams that post here are aiming for loftier goals than this. Those teams probably go through a thought process like this:
How do we have a solid chance to win a regional? We become part of one of the best 3 (or 2, or 1) alliances.
How do we become part of one of the top 3 alliances? We choose our own alliance with good scouting data to back it up.
How do we choose our own alliance? We seed high.
How do we seed high? Win a grand majority of matches and get extra ASSIST points if we are guaranteed victory.
How do we win a grand majority of matches? Build a robot that has a chance to win even if we are paired with immobile partners.
How do we build a robot that has a chance to win even with immobile partners? Score points any way that we can that do not involve teammates.
How do we score points that do not involve teammates? Throw the ball over the TRUSS and into the HIGH GOAL (although not in one throw
).
For these teams, it will be very hard to be "masters of their own fate" if they cannot throw the ball.
In the end, it comes down to your teams goals. Almost any team last year could have guaranteed themselves a spot in eliminations with a rock solid drive train and drivers, 10-point hang, and 1 point goal scoring if they had spent their whole season on these things. This year is no different.
My team decided on day 2 that we were not going to be shooting into the HIGH GOAL. On day 3 we decided that we were not going to be shooting over the TRUSS. So what are we going to do? We will be the best ball manipulating team at the regional, and guarantee ourselves a spot in eliminations as a result of this.