When you play a board game, with the creator of that board game playing it with you, listening to the things that those playing it are saying and making changes to try to improve things based on what those other players are saying, then, one of the players experiences something they don't like and, rather than be constructive with feedback they just go on a whining session, which might then taint other player's views on the game without bothering to have fully understood everything first, you can understand why the creator would get annoyed.
You really need to stop talking about Tom as if he is not one of the players of BattleMaster. He didn't create a game with a few friends, sell it to other people, then put his fingers in his ears and start singing "I'm not listening".
Before you whine about anything, just make sure you've understood the facts first. Or, explain (politely and constructively) how you have understood what has been said and ask for clarification. If you then still have objections to what has happened then politely and constructively explain why...
It's not exactly hard really is it...
It's the definition of "whine" that I can't stand for.
Honestly, the best analogy I can think of is of Tom had created a trading card game (like Magic: The Gathering) and was hosting a large tournament in which he was playing. Compare the continents in the game to rooms of the building where the event is hosted, and realms as tables around which players are seated.
Now picture that some of the card combos are broken, or that some sets of cards are slightly stronger than others, or heck, that sometimes the air conditioning turns off. You know the host made this game, and that he's playing on some other table, and left a customer service desk to get complaints.
As these events unfold, sometimes the players talk to those around them and say "hey, you know, it's really hot in here" or "gee, this set of cards doesn't seem as useful as the other". You know, just generic comments on the state of the game and the tournament. What the new "whining" policy would be is the equivalent of "players are not allowed to talk with each other, all comments MUST be made to customer service or sanctions will be inflicted".
Honestly, I find that to be a really hostile playing environment. Not everyone wants to go to customer service. Let players talk with each other, and then if they agree that there's a problem, odds are one of them will go to customer service to express the problems they're having.
