@gamerman01
I agree with @pacifiersboard in the request for the ELO to be based on the beginning status of the 2 players, not just for the effect of timing on the gain/loss on purpose. The effect of timing for not on purpose.
Not so hypothetical: A game last 6 months. We judge ELO affect based on when games ends.
Player Axis simultaneously plays and finishes 10 games while player Allies only finishes 4 other games, the ELO affect for both players on the game is largely different than when they started. For those of you trying to improve your ELO, you are probably, just as before, going to choose you opponents and the attention given to games for maximum effect. Or at least give it some weight. Hard to do that when the ELO maybe very different when its scored than the current information would predict.
By only scoring at the end, when the game itself can go for months while ELO scores on both sides are changing, seems a bit like making a bet on a football game when the spread is allowed to change between the time the bet is placed and the end of the game.
I am no mathematician, but I think that the variable K factor would compound this problem for experienced established players going up against an unknown new to league player.
I have no skin in this game. I am unsure if I will ever go for play-offs, where this matters, as my life quite often prevents me from playing consistently, and that’s not fair to my opponents or the league at large at the play off level. But I do have this weird thing for general fairness. Which, to me, also includes knowing as much as is reasonable to predict what you sign up for when you sign for it.
My 2 cents. Well, that’s probably 5 with current inflation.