Downtuning guitars, yay or nay?

I think this is quite a controversial topic. Mainly because I have heard this being thrown around for years "guitars don't need to be tuned down to play a great riff, E standard is just fine" and the rougher comments of the sort implying basically the same, and I think the reason for this is due to all the nu-metal bands of the early 2000s that downtuned their guitars a full octave or two and played pentatonic generic riffs utilizing only 2 or 3 different notes. The general consensus was that people using this approach were trying too hard sound "heavy" and ultimately failing at being any more intense than your average mid tempo E standard dad-groove.

However, I think we have reached a point where people are becoming more open-minded and standard tuning, downtuning, and drop tuning are generally accepted as equals. Meaning not that Drop B would sound good in a folk song or E standard would sound good playing doom metal (unless you're Black Sabbath) but that they all have their special places in the vast multitude of genres that exist out there.

My personal opinion is that when it comes to metal, downtuning is just superior. Anything from D# standard and down makes whatever you're playing have a crisper, warmer sound. It will suddenly sound more groovy and full, and have overall more impact. The limit for me is low C# on an 8 or 9-string, which if it's lower just sounds too muddy. I would only use those tunings if I were to play some crazy doom & gloom downtempo stuff. I do not recommend tuning Drop G on a 6-string either, and even Drop A can be inconsistent. Stick with the tuning of the string that would be a fifth lower than your lowest string as the "low" tuning for your guitar to get the proper sound. I use a baritone that I tune to F# standard and it sounds so fucking good. Tuning low will also ease the tension the strings put on your fingers which reduces fatigue.

Quarter tunings are so underrated. Which as an example would be 50% Drop B and 50% Drop C. Inbetween notes (Kirk's greatest enemy) so to speak. This can make your songs sound unlike 99,999% of music out there with 12 tones that nobody really uses, and that to me is pretty fucking cool. Pantera used to do this. If you combine tuning low with quarter tuning then that's really as far as you can get from normie tunings as possible.