Lots of people have lots of ideas about balance. But what we don't see happening is a single coherent balance mod (a la BHEdit or Equilibrium) gaining real traction. Everyone is free to make a mod with 1 or 10 or 100 balance changes in it and see if the community is interested in playing.
It is true that such games would be deranked. If people in the community who normally play ranked games are interested enough in the new balance to play deranked games, that would suggest there is a real need for different balance or at least a ranked balance option. If you can get 200 people to play 400 unranked matches using the "EvilDrewBalance" mod, that would suggest that the balance team or other admins should look at whitelisting the "EvilDrewBalance" mod for ranked play.
If you can't get people to play with alternate balance, that suggests there is no need for alternative balance options.
Also, I would be interested in some kind of comprehensive survey of FAF players as to whether they think balance is getting worse or better over time. It's not really scientific, you're asking people about their opinions and memories, but it would be useful to know whether the community is happy or sad or whatever with the balance changes over the last 5+ years. Even if the balance team is convinced that the community is "wrong" to be unhappy, it's important to gauge how people feel.