Removal of certain Middle Dutch variations
When they're just spelling variants, they only clutter up the list and add nothing. When they are real variants, I suppose the same argument can be made, though not as convincingly. In any case, I'd rather keep the descendants lists clean if possible, and list alternative forms in the entries themselves.
I disagree as well. I think all variant, perhaps short of spelling errors, should be kept and added to {{alter}}.
Only alternative forms, not alternative spellings, and only the more common alternative forms should be listed as descendants, not the really obscure ones. It clutters up the list too much.
I can conceded that obscure forms should generally be omitted, but I think a) in a period of fluctuating spelling, who's to say which is most correct, and b) making the distinction between a spelling variant and a alternative form can be blurry, and c) spelling variants can illustrate archaic forms echoing the ODut form, or the transition and standardization of MDut to ModDut.