Companies that think Player Support & Community are the same role: As someone who has both worked in and led both disciplines, I can tell you definitively that this is very short sighted thinking and a really ill thought out attempt at resource management.

The most effective way that I have found to explain this thus far: Player Support are your firefighters. They are there to stop things from burning the hell down. The role is around 70% reactive, and 30% proactive

Community Devs are more like your city planners. They're trying to figure out the best way to build a big space in which a lot of people with differing needs and wants can co-exist. This role is around 30% reactive, and around 70% proactive when done well

Yes, sometimes you can find someone who is both a great firefighter AND an amazing city planner! However, it is absolutely not the same skillset, and it's not entirely common either.

But when you decide they are the same thing and cram them all into one role, you're making someone constantly weigh up priority and focus. And most people will naturally favor one side or the other.

So at best you have a Firefighter who has a really hard time ignoring the fire to spend time on city planning, or a City Planner who is really tired at constantly putting out fires and never being able to address the needs of the community.

Both roles are *critically* important, and have different purposes. Trying to consolidate them for the sake of saving a few $$ is short sighted, and will cost you more in the long term, as you miss opportunities & optimizations that one who able to specialize would have spotted.

I am one of the folks with experience and interest in both. To this day it is still incredibly hard for me to fight the urge to Firefight, when there are longer term plans that need to be focused on. Because firefighting is *exciting*, and it feels immediately gratifying.