Like it's a Space Marine players' fault he picked the best army. :/
It IS in fact, his fault, for selecting the most user-friendly, over-hyped collection of glorified requires-no-real-tactics-IWIN-button choirboys available. Warhammer Fantasy has, what, 12, 13 factions? Warhammer 40k has 11, I think. That's 10 other factions beyond Space Marines (22-23 if you don't care if it's Fantasy or 40K your playing) and frankly, imho Daemon hunters do the whole SM thing and does it 10-times better and Imperial Guard are far more heroic and glorious than SM will ever be. Personally I'm an Eldar/Tau/SOB/IG player, in that order, and I think we can argue to the end of days what faction is cooler or 'better' than the other.
I don't like SM's, and the fact they are the main heroes/protagonists/center of story in nearly every WH40K game available is rather idiotic, given the wide selection of other options. Tell me the odds a game set primarely from, say, an Eldar view-point and having a campaign based on their exploits against their enemies (including the Imperium/SM's) will be popular/much played/not flopp horribly.
Point being, oppinion waries very much, your entitled to yours; that don't mean I won't disagree or argue forever against it if I feel so inclined.
Well, that
was a joking statement on my part, but I suppose if we want to turn it into a srsbzns debate, we can do that too.
1). There are no protagonists in 40k. No matter what anyone says, anywhere.
2). User friendly does not suggest inherent value, tactically or otherwise. If you play vanilla Space Marines, you're actually putting yourself at a disadvantage in many situations. I don't think I need to provide anecdotes, but for the sake of argument, if you didn't anticipate a lot of high-strength fire and brought your marines in the typical "two tacs in rhinos" loadout, you're gonna burn.
3). There is no such thing as a perfect army. Ergo, even the vanilla SM player has to take at least an iota of strategic thought into account if he wants to make a useful army.
4). A manicured army doesn't ensure success. A vanilla SM player running into battle head-long against a DE army, or going toe-to-toe with an Ork hoard, has fucked up his tactics and will lose to a superior strategist. In fact, ALL armies will be rolled by a superior strategist in most circumstances, barring variables attributable to random luck or other unknowns.
5). Just because you don't like the lore behind Space Marines, doesn't discredit it. I think Eldar are a ridiculous combination of overplayed elven aloofness and technobabble, doesn't mean someone else doesn't see value in it. Or as you put it, "we're entitled to our opinions."