I liked your message - you managed to point out pretty much everything that could think of, and I found it quite amusing.
I think that, of all the quirks in LT, it is the "double-hit move" that is used to jump off sideways from the end of a tank mover that should be disallowed (and will be). It goes against the spirit of the game. If you have a very short tank mover, you have to hit the key twice extremely quickly. LT is not an action game, only a puzzle game disguised with an action game's appearance. The double hit may require superhuman reactions and therefore be beyond the ability of some people, especially if they are physically handicapped.
To accomplish the other quirks that you mentioned require no speed or agility of the fingers, and you can move only once every minute if you want while you think. These are the invisible rules. They are all predictable and consistent, reproducible and documentable. I liked the part of learning LT where I didn't always know what was going to happen, so there is an experimental part of LT that probably appeals to a lot of people as you can tell by the many levels that people created that showcase and highlight or demonstrate these particular quirks of the game, almost like a lesson.
I too think that it might be fun to have a "tips and tricks" file that
would identify and name the quirky techniques of lasertank. These might
be considered hints, but people could still have the choice of reading
them or not. I'd like like to come up with names for all these moves. The
following moves have already been discussed in the open forum:
1) "Tank-Riding". Shoot an enemy or anything else under yourself (one
of the 1st tricks you have to learn).
2) "General Subversion". Using a tank mover to make an enemy shoot
its laser for your own purposes.
3) "Double-Hit". Stepping off the track sideways when you reach the
end and before you get shot by double-hitting.
4) "Laser Phasing" Use the tank track to move towards an enemy who
is shooting at you and the shot goes right through you.
5) "Upstream Subversion". Fooling an enemy into shooting by trying
to go the wrong way on a tank mover.
I think that, of all the quirks in LT, it is the "double-hit move" that is used to jump off sideways from the end of a tank mover that should be disallowed (and will be). It goes against the spirit of the game. If you have a very short tank mover, you have to hit the key twice extremely quickly. LT is not an action game, only a puzzle game disguised with an action game's appearance. The double hit may require superhuman reactions and therefore be beyond the ability of some people, especially if they are physically handicapped.
I think most of the quirks that you mentioned can be explained. First your tank is different from the enemy tanks in important ways. It is a prototype developed in the late twentieth century that employs alien technology to operate in a 5-dimensional space-time. In order to stabilize its hyperfield matrix, it was built from advanced polymer alloys that have been cooled with liquid hydrogen and form a superconducting outer shell to impede electromagnetic propagation, with captured dark-matter forming another inner thermal and electromagnetic barrier.
Specifically, the field generators are pulsed, so when you are traveling towards an enemy tank, and it shoots at you, your defense field and the enemy's laser can electromagnetically interfere destructively if negatively phased thus allowing the laser shot to pass harmlessly through you. Of course, if you are at the wrong distance, they interfere constructively when positively phased and you are twice as dead. Also, the enemy's laser has temporal tachyon components that you have to consider before crossing in front of one.
Also, i'm not convinced that your tank actually rides on top of a block or mirror. I think that due to the higher dimensional aspects of your tank, a laser shot can cause you to become temporarily quantum phased and in fact blend into and inside the block, existing in the same 4D time and space, but with a different fifth dimension coordinate, thus providing you with perfect camouflage from which to wreak havoc and let loose the dogs of war on the enemy.
I'm sure this explanation will make everything clear.
-Steve