As for Classic Concentration, it would drive me absolutely bonkers when the contestants would jibber jabber or worse, when Alex would jibber jabber for a while during the game. I even recall once a contestant snapped at Alex semi-playfully when he was asking "Can so and so remember where that match was? We just say it a moment ago" and she said something like "I could if you'd allow me to just pick already..." or something to that effect.
I suppose there were three logical points though with that going on...
So you claim to understand why the show did things that way (or claim to?) The producers probably grew up with the very quiet version on NBC where players called numbers and the ka-chunk was the loudest thing on the show. I think it is nice when the game board is the focus that we can actually hear more from the players than just positive integers and I bet if enough people wrote in and said "Golly gee whilikers I wish Alex would put a cork in it!" that he probably would do so.
