@biass: I respect your and other people's work as mappers (hey I've made maps too, remember), and I think you have some excellent maps like Aalhaven and Choir and Flagellant that are certainly above mapgen quality, however I do think most mapgen maps stand above (on their own, without the factor of novelty) a lot of maps that are included in map pools. At least in terms of my personal preference.
Here's some examples from current map pool:
- amoor: i think this is equal quality with most 10x10 mapgen maps
- yemkey: this is weaker than all mapgen maps I've seen so far
- strife of titan: I prefer all 20x20 mapgens
- last oasis: i prefer most 10x10 mapgens
- the land wilderness: equal quality with mapgen
- darkfall: i prefer most 10x10 mapgens
- forgotten facilities: i prefer all 10x10 mapgens
- arctic refuge: i prefer all 10x10 mapgens (given this map would be pretty good if it wasn't for the middle section)
- seraphim glaciers: equal quality with most mapgens
- finn's revenge: i prefer all 10x10 mapgens
(with all I mean all that I've played so far, I'm sure there are some broken seeds out there)
On top of this some of the mapgen maps have been some of my favorite new maps (we grinded 1 map for about 4 games in a row with Arch yesterday) that I'd choose over maps like Twin Rivers anyday.
Maps like Open Palms, Rusting Iron Roundel and The Ganges Chasma are unrivalled by mapgen currently imo (in their respective mapsize categories).