Competitive Scrabble player here :) -- the reason the C goes down to two points despite having no two-letter words is that it is actually a very good letter - basically, it's in a lot of high-probability bingos. In contrast, the V is one of the worst tiles in the game. It's telling that the Q stays at 10 despite QI -- the Q is by far the worst tile in the game.
In any case I've always wondered what the values of tiles should be if we were to use our current word list rather than the NY Times - thanks for this analysis. The blank is missing though, it would probably have a significantly negative value (-25 to -30?).
At the end of it all I'd rather keep the values what they are. Part of the beauty of Scrabble is the fact that there is chance. Despite the Z and the Q both being worth 10 points, one realizes pretty quickly how much worse the Q is.
Yes, my distaste for C is probably because I'm not a good enough player, haha. I received an email mentioning the CLARINETS heuristic for choosing tiles to leave in one's rack, and in that context the drop in C's value makes sense, as you say.
In any case I've always wondered what the values of tiles should be if we were to use our current word list rather than the NY Times - thanks for this analysis. The blank is missing though, it would probably have a significantly negative value (-25 to -30?).
At the end of it all I'd rather keep the values what they are. Part of the beauty of Scrabble is the fact that there is chance. Despite the Z and the Q both being worth 10 points, one realizes pretty quickly how much worse the Q is.