Looking at the Tainted chars, I can see 5 chars who are clearly good for speedrunning (Isaac, Judas, Samson, Azazel and Lilith) and then 3-4 of them are ok, but either harder or more gimmicky. A 5 tainted char run would be a good point of entry where everyone pick the same chars and get used to them. Then a 7 open-tainted would let people include 2 more chars of their choice in the mix.

I'm all for variety and playing what you think is fun to you. I wouldn't mind this change. Even though everyone will probably pick Eden and Azazel :p

You are absolutely right. All those people running with this dumb mod should be ashamed to call themselves "speedrunners".