@Gargron At first I thought it was lame but when I read their argumentation it makes sense.
It would be easier for people and their irl friends or acquaintances to remember the username if it doesn't have error-prone numbers attached to it.

Personally I think it's good to be accommodating to new users rather than overly loyal to older ones out of fear of backlash. At the end of the day, it's a minor inconvenience for us, but a better system for newcomers.

@Mephisto Discord could still do better than that. Let's say, this redtapping of "#" in username is arbitrary - it was essential before as part of user tag and still is now to avoid username claims. Now they make claiming unique username mandatory, except that pound symbol evaporates without clear reason.

Other than that, I think it's long overdue of an attempt to make claim system a-la-Instagram. I never needed discriminators to determine if I'm chatting with the right person nor did I need it to make my username claim without collision - first of all, mine is not so popular, but unique, so I can do it without trouble. Discriminators??? There was no need to reinvent the wheel in the first place - the way we've always done in the Internet - just append whatever on your nickname and it will become unique. Wow, what is this magic!?