Amazing post. You were on fire.
Alina should skate competitively as long as she feels like she could compete for metals. I don't understand why some people want her to step aside or some other skaters even if they're in their 20s it's like what the heck else are they going to do? Hoping her knees hold up the next few years so that she can skate at or near her best to continue to thrill us all.
The most amazing thing is how close Alina came to leaving her coach and that would have changed everything. But Eteri gave her a second chance and the rest is history. Amazing.
Many people prefer to see others on the podium and Alina may interfere with such an understandable desire. As we could see at WC-19 she may interfere up to the highest place available and ruin a lot of dreams.
The only side-effect here is to have a downgraded competition. WC with only 2-3 high grade skaters may be much lesser profitable than the same with 8-10 skaters.