The top times for smaller tiles aren't mashing at all. There's a glitch called NKRO rollover that can be used to mash the keys artificially frame perfect if you hold down as many keys as want to simultaneously and then reset the game.

A handcam actually isn't the worst idea because it would make a splice harder to fake. I'm assuming you're talking about it for all categories, current or otherwise. I disagree that the glitch lowers the skill level of the game substantially, but not because getting to 512 is easy for anyone. It's just that because RNG is for the most part an even playing ground for anyone willing to put in the time, and every part of the game is a translatable skill. There is some variation in how well people can merge in the early game, but all the glitch does is remove that early stage in favor of risking more towards the end since you can get on more runs. I'm not really sure why we haven't already split glitched and glitchless since there was a vote, but it's not gonna change the board very much or enhance the culture behind this community. Also the argument of why don't run other games doesn't really hold any ground here, because I know for a fact I'm better now than when I was first trying to sub 1 and clearly the boards are currently not stratified by RNG or even predominantly RNG. Yes, there are plenty of games where the top runs on the leaderboard poorly reflect the experience of playing the game, and I don't think it's even particularly controversial that the speed aspect is a side branch of this game to begin with (just search "2048 world record" and see what dominates the search results). However this site's entire purpose, again, is to provide a haven to the speedrunning community (eponymous to the activity regardless of the culture behind the game). There's a weird element of subjectivity being argued for here that I highly doubt the mods are going to be able to accommodate. The High Score category wasn't removed because people didn't inherently value playing 2048 for a high score or because others didn't like the approach other people used to get a higher score, it was removed because that's not the purpose of the site. I don't even really see the glitch as something specific to this game, since that's how a keyboard behaves when you hold down any number of keys at the same time in any application. By definition a glitch would malign the actions one has to take to meet a defined purpose, this "glitch" doesn't change the nature of the game at all.

I don't understand why the same people claiming to be interested in utility for as many runners as possible are trying to revise the premises that runs are accepted by, with provisions like PC runs need a keyboard cam, etc. Also, in what way are the PC times an unrealistic notion of what is possible with the game? Only a few 2048 PC runs are even glitched at all, and all of the smaller tiles have been moved to misc as appropriate. People have also gotten far better times than the current leaderboard suggests before the glitch was found, and the glitch will only make a difference of ~10 sec at most if you're competitive at all and have a sane amount of free time to RNG grind for 512+ starts. My glitchless 1:03 PB demonstrates that. That being said, complaining about the current times being unattainable when they've been clearly vetted and shown to on a website whose PURPOSE is to rank times and provide information about exploits/routing strats comes across as extremely childish. If you aren't good at something, literally do anything else with your life omg

Although I'm also fairly new to speedrun.com, I feel comfortable modding seeing as I only follow a few games but still log in regularly. I see where only running this game looks bad though, up to you. Appreciate the followup :)

Yeah, I've submitted 1:08 and 1:07 WRs and even emailed support. Nothing. Will probably go on the moderator request forum eventually.