Do you agree that changes should be made to the program within the first four weeks? It is hard to calibrate such things. If the author of the program didn’t, what makes an individual who purchased the program qualified to do so, before even running an entire four weeks?
What do you mean by "changes to the program"? The number of sets and the session length are autoregulated. So the program "as written" already has a lot of leeway in applying those parameters. Of course individuals who purchase the program are qualified to make those decisions -- it's an assumption that the program is built on. Otherwise, everything would be spelled out to the set and the minute, like in Kettlebell Muscle.
I did miss elaboration on that aspect when I began the conversation, auto regulation does work for me and it has worked long term.
What do you mean by "long term"? To me, long term is between 6 months and forever. I have close to 40 years of training experience and I've found that things that work great for 6 months might not be sustainable in the same way for another 6 months, or another year. If it is working for you, that's great. I have no opinion on your specific training because I don't know anything about it.
I don’t think someone should decide it doesn’t work and stack another deload protocol on top of the program before doing it as written.
Who said autoregulation "doesn't work"? I think it's a very effective strategy, and one thing that makes it effective is its flexibility. But it operates in day-by-day timeframe and, as I mentioned previously, that doesn't automatically calibrate training and recovery long term.
Personally, I mostly don't use any formal deloading "protocol." I have been speaking more to the general idea and practice of proactively waving the training load and considering long term recovery and progress in doing so, not just autoregulation in the sense of doing the most I am capable of on any given day.
That is handicapping and limiting the program, you might not like the verbiage but it is artificially lowering your work load in a parameter that the program wasn’t designed with.
Again, I disagree with this characterization. Lowering the
workload, is not necessarily limiting
results. In my experience it only enhances results. I find that while an occasional hard push/overreach is fine (over a day, week, month, or even couple of months), I feel stronger and better spending most of my time on cruise control, and throwing in more easy and off days (and occasional easy or off weeks). It the opposite of a handicap or limitation.