There's no deep understanding needed. A willingness to avoid trades involving prospects eliminates part of the ADV benefit (and as noted numerous times here it's extremely unlikely anyone will make an even deal for a top draft pick), and anyone willing to spend 10 minutes with a spreadsheet can take care of making projections for his own players.

Trades will be offered a ton when you have a new player.  That is true of almost every league I have ever been in.  Most of the time the newbie are at a disadvantage.  Imagine if they had no idea what the projection was.  Most new players won't take a NO TRADE for prospects stance.

First seasons you have a team you have no idea how guys really project out over the long term.  The idea that you need "spend 10 minutes on a spreadsheet" to save the money won't even come into a persons thought process until several seasons in when they realize 50% of the league is on 0 ADV.

Once you make that realization lets say in season 2 or 3......you may be at 14 ADV and it will take another 4 seasons to get down to 0.  That ends up being 6 seasons or two years of persons life.  Why would that kind of advantage be programmed into the game and then not addressed when so many exploit it?

Well, the most important piece of advice I give n00bs is "If you're not sure, don't do it."    That's very simple to apply to trading.

No one has argued that it makes sense to program the advantage into the system or to leave it in place. But it is there.  There's a new thread monthly about 0 ADV, so if a new player doesn't realize it's a strategy until several seasons in, that person isn't paying any attention to the forums or the plentiful advice available, and is missing out on a lot more than scouting. Once you realize when development maxes out and what ratings affect development, it's simple to figure out how to make projections. Or you can just ask a mentor, or a veteran in the world. If it takes someone six seasons to figure that out, he's got bigger problems than 0 ADV.

I can't argue with many of the things said in this thread.  It took me several seasons to swallow the whole, "you don't need advanced scouting" mantra.  I kept trying to convince myself that it was somehow important regardless of what most people were saying.  When I finally let go of that notion, it all became very clear.  As new franchise owners, we have several things working against us.  It takes a little time for most of us to get past the, "Ohhhh Shiny!" aspect of the Overall Rating.  It's just convenient to look at numbers like the projected ratings and Overall and assume the higher the numbers, the better the player must be.  A heavy emphasis on OV, a genuine lack of understanding about what player ratings are important, putting too much faith in projections, and having a desire to start making trades right away spells doom in most cases.

To specifically address this topic, I fully agree that 0 ADV Scouting is the only way to go.  It sucks it's this way, but why waste the money when you don't have to?

I keep 20M ADV all the time so I can see exactly how high the Patience rating is gonna get.  I can't stand players pestering for playing time and have to know they will bide their time.