Do people think defenders are good for the long term health of gwent?

I've seen a few discussions/videos but couldn't see anything recent so thought I'd ask.

Do people think defenders are a good thing for Gwent and if so why?

My personal opinion is no. I think they just promote binary remove or lose style gameplay but are too difficult to remove.

Realistically unless you have a purify card in hand trying to remove a defender is very difficult without using a heatwave in most scenarios (as very few realistic cards do enough raw damage). This means that even if you manage to remove a defender it's often taking 2-3 rounds to do it plus another to then remove the actual threat. To me this seems too strong and honestly, defenders just seem tied to toxic cheese strategies where the game hinges on one or two specific cards being played uncontested.

Personally Id just remove them but at the very least I'd tone the hp down so they die to normal removal spells.

It doesn't matter if they die to something cheaper than their cost imo cos they still get you an extra turn to use that critical order etc. It just stops them being almost unkillable protecting something for an entire round or conversely forcing you to use the only removal you have actually capable of removing a threat to remove the defender.