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Regardless, of differing opinions, one thing is quite clear when you step back 6 feet away.
'Next Chess' as discussed here is just another spec to create another chess-like variant in the hope that std chess players will warm up to it.

Any game on these pages not too different from chess is 'next chess' in one or more opinions. At one point in time, I used to think this way too: that there must be a next chess either here or one that I create. But the reality is - the players decide (over the course of time) on 'next chess' or the next game not the designer or anyone else (esp NOT people with a dislike for orthodox chess).

I think a more useful endeavor would be categorize the existing chess variants under the parameters mentioned below. e.g. gating, dropping, shuffling, larger board, etc. and maybe promote a few of them in such a manner.

10x10 boards seem better for this purpose - unless you want really minor changes like Displacement Chess - more deserving of next chess since it was already tried successfully and is not much change at all.

Adding Rook-knight / bishop knight compounds (or any other pieces actually) to 8x8 makes it too over-powered.

Note that Displacement Chess was mentioned in 'Popular Chess Variants' by David Pritchard.
See Displacement Chess 2 for my minor modification of this.