Would there be value to MacGyver an engine benchmark or "something" for the purpose of stress-testing community hardware and gathering statistics of where issues might arise?
This benchmark would not need to have any game play elements, just a ridiculously large dummy map, with hundreds of simultaneous character movements / spell effects and multi-directional sound.
I believe this might allow the development team to get an idea, up front, of where "funky" hardware issues will arise. Additionally if the statistics show that the vast majority of the community already have capable hardware, then maybe this will provide some comfort pre-alpha.