Okay so Ubuntu MATE is ditching VLC for gnome MPV and well..... this idea frankly sucks.
I understand for a integration perspective this is a good idea for a functionality standpoint this is a bad idea.
Gnome MPV is buggy, it cant play DVD's properly not to mention VLC has more customization.
I know i can manually install VLC myself but still, this is a lame idea.
Much like the lame idea of putting Brisk menu as the default menu when it still crashes all the time and is as stable as a drink riding bucking bull standing on a deck covered in marbles on a ship during a hurricane.
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I agree about Gnome MPV. I have used Gnome MPV a number of times and it is buggy as hell in, my personal experience, compared to VLC.
Haven't tried gnome-mpv, just mpv and like it better than vlc.
It's lighter, highly tweakable, takes a minute to configure using mpv.conf (with all the tips and config files available online) and then you're good to go.
Anyway, should you hate it , adding sudo apt remove -y celluloid && apt install -y vlc to your post-install script shouldn't be too difficult. Moreover, the whole process shouldn't be a huge waste of time since the 19.10 iso will be downloaded quicker.
Using a GNU/Linux distro is sharing a vision you're free to adapt to your tastes. A luxury Windows users don't really have.
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My experience with gnome mpv has been really good, the reason i decided to just use the default vlc a while ago was, because i highly dislike csd in MATE, in gnome or elementary they are ok, but they just don't fit with mate, i am actually happy about this decision
But thats the problem, one is configurable in the GUI and one is configurable via editing a text file, guess what one a windows user would be more familiar with? Guess what program a windows user would be familiar with?
Its not gnome MPV
Editing text files are not user friendly and the user can screw up easily if they dont know what they are doing.
Again i do think of windows users who may take ubuntu mate for a spin here
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'Windows users' who wouldn't devote one minute of their time to set a video player the way they want should not be bothered as it just works with the default settings and the preferences menu from gnome-mpv shoud be enough for them. The Windows users who care might already run MPV on WIndows and be familiar with mpv.conf.
Copy-pasting a few lines in a text file for a person bold enough to install a GNU/Linux distro on a computer should not be really less user friendly than the bloated advanced options Menu in VLC.
And then again, they're free to install VLC if they can't live without it. Typing a line in the terminal or searching for "VLC" in the Software Boutique is not that hard, even for 'Windows users'.
Never had a crash either with Gnome MPV or Brisk.
They are great piece of software.
I can't tell about DVD, because I don't care (it's so past).
What I would rather find lame are your criticisms and your attitude.
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I can understand the argument, but in all reality Windows users aren't flocking to Linux. And as time goes on, I see more old timers using Ubunt-MATE (me included) than anything else. As long as whatever the alternative option is in the boutique I think we are good.
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Also keep in mind that VLC relies on QT, which doesn't really fit that well with MATE and GTK, plus it adds extra (otherwise unnecessary) libraries in the disc image.
Getting VLC to honor MATE's HiDPI configuration was a real pain and I'm happy to not have to worry about out-of-the-box users getting a sub par experience.
I personally do the minimal install, so not really worried about this 
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I use VLC every day. However, I installed gnome MPV from its' PPA -
https://launchpad.net/~xuzhen666/+archive/ubuntu/gnome-mpv?field.series_filter=bionic
this afternoon. It appears to be a solid piece of software as far as I can tell. I'm not crazy about the present QT GUI interface but am pleased and impressed with its functionality.
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I do like VLC's Playback/Renderer providing the capability to cast videos across the network.
I too wanted to add my grain of salt as I have/had been using VLC for quite sometime and like my habits but somethings they do not work anymore.
My solution was altering with/switching to SMPlayer.
I have not given gnome MPV any usage however but according to my experience most media players are just waste.
I've used VLC since my Windows days and it was always been a top performer for me. It's offers more features than I've ever had time to use. My experience with Linux however, has been spotty for me when I used "drag and drop" from folders to the VLC window. It would always ask what application I wanted open to view the video. I selected VLC. The result was that any time I wanted to open ANY folder, VLC would open and go crazy. I had to use the Kill switch to settle thing down. I just installed Gnome-mpv from the terminal since I didn't see it in the snap store
sudo apt install gnome-mpv
I didn't see any addition to the "Other software" repositories, so I assume it's part of the Canonical or partners repos.
Initial impressions;
It supports "Drag and drop" as I hoped.
interface is really simple (maybe too simple)
UM18.04LTS. (64bit) i5, 8GgB, really old amd graphics card. DE " pretty much stock."
Certainly not a new system by most measures. I'll give it a try. I usually don't install anything not in the Software boutique" on my daily driver.
You can make it integrate with MATE better and access some of its features easier by disabling csd in the preferences.
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Yeah, that kind of sucks, but for some software I use which isn't VLC I needed to add QT libraries and build from scratch with qmake.
Not everybody has as deep a breadth of knowledge about graphical UI to create alternatives to software they make using Qt or WxWidgets. Especially if you are into software emulation, and building from scratch you may find yourself dealing with two or three user interface languages at the same time.
There is something to be said about using only the command line; if you know what to type all of the time, then the only interface you have to worry about is your keyboard!
Disable CSD (Client-side decorations) in preferences. Wasn't familiar with the term and it appeared in preferences in full text. 
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Haven't tried gnome-mpv, just mpv and like it better than vlc.
+1
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Oh dear! Deadman's Curve alert
Making MATE to please Windows users is more likely to drive away Linux users than it is to attract Windows users.
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I use SMPlayer myself have had no issues with it