I agree entirely with BB. Keeping SSD's in a separate category will keep the competition fair and allow new runners & runners who can't afford an SSD to have comparable times to those who do have access to an SSD. It only makes sense to keep everyone on a level playing field.

I don't agree with Adam's opinion of "if you care about being competitive in a hobby then you better be ready to pay for it". Sure, if you're an athlete, you want the best equipment to help you do your best. But in my eyes, paying for better equipment for speedrunning is more along the lines of getting a better monitor. Someone with a shitty monitor can still play just as well. Using an SSD against people using HDD's in the same category would be more like professional athletes playing against high schoolers. It's a clear uneven playing ground. There are physical disadvantages to the high school team that put them at a clear disadvantage. If they're good at the game, they can still put up a fight, but even then, they cannot play at the same level as the professional athletes no matter how well they play that day. Even if the high schoolers are using better equipment, there's clear physical disadvantage regardless. Using an SSD is kinda like that. You can be the best runner and get a would-be world record, but still not get world record due to someone in the top spot being an SSD user. If an SSD user and an HDD user have the exact same run, the SSD user will always be in the lead anyway.

The other argument connected to this is that all PS3 versions are in the same category despite time differences. The issue I see with this comparison is that it's a slightly different situation. A super slim is still a stock PS3. Someone who buys a super slim PS3 hasn't modified their console to go faster. It's just a matter of circumstance. However, someone who uses an SSD has done so to purposely get an advantage. Someone with a super slim console can't control going faster. However, everyone who buys a PS4 has the same HDD by default. If you bought an SSD for your PS4 years ago and got rid of the original HDD, I say, oh well. The people who have SSD's in their PS4's are still a large minority compared to those who still have their original hard drives. Other people shouldn't need to upgrade if you're not willing to downgrade. Getting an HDD is far cheaper than getting an SDD anyway. And if you're not willing to get an HDD, then you can still run by having a separate category.

TL;DR - Putting HDD and SSD runs in the same category would only discourage new runners and make it harder to judge consistency in run speed. By default, everyone is on a level playing field with the default HDD, so those who want the absolute best possible time shouldn't need to upgrade to an SSD. Those with SSD's are in the minority, so those with an advantage will have a clear opportunity to advance higher on the leaderboard than HDD users. I don't understand the issue with having two separate categories or SSD users putting the original HDD back in the PS4. And like I said, if you got rid of it years ago, then downgrading to an HDD is much cheaper than upgrading to an SSD, and not as many people would need to do it if they want to compete on the non-SSD leaderboard. Priorities of the majority before priorities of the minority, that's how I see it.