Did you actually read the patent? I mean, fully? It’s a long text, and not easy to read.
I will admit, I didn’t But when I did a quick scan, I saw a lot of places where things were mentioned such as finding a match that gives the player an enjoyable experience (i.e, avoid lopsided matches between players of very different skill level, because they are neither fun for the player who wins without effort, nor for the player who never stands a chance) - or such as finding the right trade-off between this goal of finding an enjoyable match versus too long queue times.
So if your point is that Blizzard has a patent on a method to ensure that players have matches that are as exciting as possible, without having to wait too long, then I don’t see that as a problem. The “manipulation” then is to try to keep me playing by making my experience as fun as it can be, by finding opponents at or close to my own level. Well, doesn’t every game producer strive to give their customers the best possible experience?
When I googled the patent, I also saw claims, on various websites, that Blizzard uses this patent to give paying customers an advantage. Well, I did not see that in the patent. But once more with the caveat that I didn’t read it all. Hence my question at the start. If you did, then perhaps you can quote or point me to the relevant parts.
For now, my logic is this. There are three options. One is to not rig any system in favour of paying customers, and keep everything fair. That is relatively easy to do. The second option is to invest more developer time in order to somehow give paying customers an advantage, and then clearly publish on your website that paying will give you a gameplay advantage. That is an investment (extra developer time) that hopefully pays off (extra sales).
And then there is the third option, to invest that extra time to give paying customers an advantage, but never tell anyone about it. And so, nobody knows, and nobody has a reason to buy more. Because they don’t know that they’ll get an advantage. And yes, this is of course possible, in theory. But why would any company invest money in a more expensive logic, and then not try to earn that investment back?
So yes. Possible in theory. But highly unlikely.
Finally, this entire patent is about matchmaking, not about the match itself. The context of this topic is not even about matchmaking. It all started with someone who had (or thought they had) a bad luck streak and claimed that what happens during the game (draw, random card effects) is not actually random but deliberately programmed against them. In that context, I do not even see how a patent about matchmaking is even relevant at all.
TLDR: What I see in the patent you mention is a method to find an opponent of roughly equal skill, with a trade-off to prevent too long queue times. What some people claim (but I didn’t see, and consider unlikely) is that the patent also mentions giving paying customers more favourable matches. And what this patent definitely is not about is affecting randomness during the game, which was the topic of this thread.
I guess you know this already, but just to clarify, in all seriousness I’m not suggesting there’s a Hearthstone God. I’m suggesting that when we share what we have, especially with those in need, we are blessed and that maybe this blessing extends even to the nether regions of those locked up in a children’s card game by the name of Hearthstone. (I’m 45 by the way 
