We decided that KISS was the way to go this year. High goal is worth more points but at what cost?
In the past few years, we've found more DoF doesn't correspond with higher OPR. In fact, we found they tend to correlate negatively. In the past 4 years, our robots have had 4 DoF (2 drive), 4 DoF (3 drive), 3 DoF (2 drive), and 4 DoF (2 drive). We try to make all of our robots reflect our name - The Simple Machines. Good robots don't need 20 DoF, they only need 3 or 4 with a good strategy and driver.
I too was at Hatboro and I noticed 4454's robot. The Artisanal Rocketeers caught my eye last year, and continue to hold it this year. I was very surprised to see such a basic robot doing so well, but I was unsurprised (if that's a word) when I saw it was them. Kudos to them and to all of the teams who chose to KISS.