>players can choose to become criminal -and suffer the
>unbalanced consequence - while Tribunal players have no say
>in the choice of being put at disadvantage.

Firstly, if you're an existing Tribunal player, I appreciate your passion - I truly do! I LOVE Tribunal, and as a serial Tribunal player, I cannot help but feel personally outraged whenever our favourite cabal is exploited by 'chicken' Ragers like this (I call them chicken with a mischievous smile and no real rancour, and really it's also just their present leaders I'm talking about).

But, to your points above, (1) many players have no (credible, non-immersion breaking) choice when it comes to whether to become a criminal, there is real RP pressure on a diverse variety of roles to consistently break Laws and 'suffer' the disadvantages of being marked Wanted, and (2) losing the Scales does put Tribunal players at a disadvantage against criminals, but what are these disadvantages really (for the average non-Provost, non-Justi, non-Vindi character)?

If memory serves, (a) cannot invoke transportation pillar to get from the Spire to your jurisdiction and back, so have to walk instead, (b) cannot use manacles on criminals. Not sure about Informant and not sure about Judge (but these are both investigation rather than PK-oriented), pretty sure we can still call Vigilance, call Guards, and marked WANTED, so yay!