"I know allowing any UI mods can escalate into players basically having AI microing their units up to point where player doesnt even press a button during a match so I have solution for where the line should be. For example there was a "russian hacker" story here on FAF where someone had a ui mod where units would automatically surround another unit, ex. labs surrounding a megalith. This was considered overpowered and bannable, because labs would otherwise have to be microed around the megalith manually, but this isnt a problem of ui mods, its a problem of labs countering megalith.
While I dont know the specifics of how that mod worked, this shows where UI mods can start "playing the game for you", because if this player had to tell his units to "surround the megalith" imo its fine, because this ui mod simply allowed that player to tell those labs what to do easier "surround that megalith", but if those units instead "automatically surrounded the megalith should it walk into range" it isnt. imo the line for UI mods that are allowed should be where the units themselves start automatically giving themselves orders depending on circumstances (aka "AI"), lets say a fighter that automatically stops attacking and gives itself a move order back to base if it flies too far from patrol waypoint."
You can apply this same logic to any sort of micro element in a game. What if in sc2 some dude made a mod that auto splits your marines with a singular hotkey? You can make the same argument about how the problem is the marine balance not the control of the unit but in the end these unit controls are what separate the best from the good.
The appeals to authority of Chris Taylor are always annoying. Regardless of what he thinks about "the game not being about who can click faster" he is wrong. If I have two identically skilled players with the same level of game knowledge, the dude with double the apm will always win because he has the ability to put his macro knowledge into practice better and faster. Thinking apm is possible to remove as a factor from RTS is just fairytale BS.
What supcom DOES do is make apm not matter for an extremely long time. The game is heavily macro based and you can rise extremely far with very, very mediocre apm by RTS standards. However, the top will always be defined by apm and having modifications that remove that element just lowers the skill ceiling in the game.
In the end I don't care about whether such things as what you mentioned are integrated in the game. That's a balance/game team call. What I do care about is whether they are modifications or not. If they are ui mods, then whoever doesn't have it will be at a supreme disadvantage because they are effectively operating with 1 less unit ability or in other words, giving up apm for no reason other than a lack of out-of-game information.