Hmm.. I feel like we are overthinking it.
@Alin it doesn't seem that bad to have 5 teams hunting all the 5-star players with good traits... indeed, we probably have just 5 teams buying 5-star players, and it's already good news because in the last seasons before the update, it was just me and palermo. A great improvement, I would say
Reading this topic, if I didn't know how it works, I would think that only some players have access to the prospects with traits... since whoever can buy them, and they are not bound to be 5 stars, so also little clubs could be interested, why should we be worried? The ones who won't have them are the ones who are scared to buy without seeing the AQ, it's a choice... but there is also the player's market.
Introducing a limit to the total number of players with traits seems a bit forced to me, and would bring below zero the value of the players with negative traits... if before they weren't appealing, after they would become a burden to get rid of. Maybe setting a limit per single trait would make more sense: too many cooks spoil the broth, so limiting the INF would prevent locker room issues. Better not to have too many SPS because they would be upset for not being able to take set pieces and so on. Still a bit forced, but less than the limit to the total number.
In some games, players also have mental skills. For example, in FM, there are skills like aggression, bravery, determination, charisma, ambition, sportsmanship and so on... they are not influenced by training, and most of them keep the same value for the whole career of the player (not surprisingly). Traits in KOB are a good surrogate for the mental skills, but I don't think it makes sense to have them changing dynamically... can you imagine Rino Gattuso being DET, then losing the trait overnight and after a couple of seasons becoming SPS? That wouldn't make much sense...
@nicmo, if you want to introduce something that changes dynamically, maybe even in an unpredictable way, you could introduce a new parameter, player form, bringing a little bonus or penalty based on its value and being slightly updated every day like a random walk, in addition to the traits, or to replace them. This is another common feature in online football manager games. Or just implement that individual morale