Tiers?

[Answerer]

No, it's not. In any 3.5 arena, if you only care for power and power alone, there is only one possible build and we know which build that is. By it's own definition, all builds end up at tier 6, since not going for that one build is (guess what?) a flavor decision.

The tier list you're talking about is for a heavily (heavily) houseruled fluff-less arena match. The Test of Spite had an enormous banlist, including (you guessed it) Manipulate Form.

Pun-pun was not an option in Test of Spite. Nor were numerous other TO builds, having been killed by various bans. As a result, players were free to experiment with other builds to try and find new broken combinations. The entire thing was a way to have fun while finding those broken combinations so they could be added to the banlist.

It makes no sense in this context to make any significant decisions for flavor reasons. Test of Spite didn't involve any role playing. It's just that it was not always obvious what the most powerful combinations were, since any particularly broken ones that came to light were quashed with a ban.

You are taking something grossly out of context and making a straw man argument out of it. Really, I highly doubt you're fooling anyone with it, so you might as well stop.