[George Nishimura]

I think there are two concerns here:

First, how much does autonomous cost from a team strategy perspective. By team strategy, I mean resource (time and personnel) allocation within a team over the course of the season. Unfortunately that's heavily dependent on what resources you have available to you.

I will say that I believe autonomous code (vision tracking <: auto code) is an interesting and educational software challenge which can be useful independent of (a) actual use (b) autonomous period and (c) this year. Autonomous operation isn't only restricted to autonomous period after all (especially in a game with such potential for visual impairment) and is annually part of the game.

The second concern is the value from a match strategy perspective.

I haven't done any points analysis or prediction this year, so deciding whether the 20/32 points is good proportionally I'll leave to other people.

Regardless of point values, there is of course the value of fifteen seconds of match time. Non-autonomous points can be "scored" during autonomous too, and it would seem like a waste to do nothing. But probably in a lot of teams' minds this year is that it's not just fifteen seconds, but the first fifteen seconds. Namely, two things are true:

a) the field is clear (no stacks have been built)
b) four recycling containers are on the step

As time progresses in a match, retreiving the containers could become harder as neither of those things are guaranteed to be true. Ambitious teams recognize that the maximum scores can only be achieved with containers, as they effectively act like multipliers.

(There's also a regional strategy perspective that could come in to play. Autonomous code is an attractive message to send out and could even be recognized in an award)

tl;dr - imo i'd nick the bins