I'll preface this with the reminder that arguing background is a murky business- in essence we are all right in our interpretations. So my responses should be taken in light that I know they are only my opinion and I know it's not real.
Tyranids don't think like humans, they don't think. They evolve.
If you have problem X, humans will look at it, analyse it, group-think about it, develop the best solutions, test those solutions on a small scale, if sucessful, proceed with solution X.
Tyranid problem X, they will throw themselves at it on a massive scale, those that suceed will be bred in greater number and thrown at it again. If none suceed, variations and adaptations will be thrown at it in great numbers, until some do.
The individual Tyranid does not ponder, does not plan, does not analyse emotion, does not undertake elaborate psychological campaigns- they work on the grand scale of numbers, evolving rapidly to solve a problem by sheer number of answers thrown at it.
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And prey which doesn't defends itself is much easier to eat than prey which defends itselfe. Genestealer Cults do something similar but in a very different way.
I'm not so much arguing the idea of a Lictor killing the leader-beast of it's enemy, more the way it acts like Hannibal Lector messing with the leader-beasts mind. I just don't see it fitting the Tyranid psychology at all.
The Genestealer Cult is an anomaly because it's member's are human hybrids, and so have human thinking. Besides which do they exist in the new Codex?
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For example:  I understand the responses a cat will make to various stimuli.  This doesn't mean I have cat like respoonses to stimuli.  I can however use what I know about a cat to amke it do what i want.
You've fundamentally missed the point that a Tyranid doesn't think like you- a Tyranid beast doesn't observe a creature objectively, making analyses, critical thinking, imagining possible responses, storing deep and long memories in logical, rational ways.
Think ant colony. Highly organised, populations of thousands, able to destroy creatures far larger and more powerful, able to dominate the surrounding land....yet none of them torment or torture their prey for psychological effect. None of them sit on Building Committees to build sustainable nests, not of them vote...
They are cogs in a machine, they are grown for specific animal purposes and follow them as instinctively as ants.
The Tyranids are far scarier (and so interesting to play) to me as a vast uncaring ant colony that kills you as food simply because they are animals- your grand art, your powerful weapons, your ideas of freedom and knowledge mean nothing to this beast. Cthulu essentially.
Anthromophobic tyrants (psuedo-humans- think Disney animals) are far more boring to me.
Should we even bother getting into the Cylon Tyranid? The Special Character that literally cannot be killed- every 12yr olds wildest dream.
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For instance: All those special new Tyranid individuals. Every army can take them. It is actually worse than actual Special Characters like eg Blood Angels Chapter Master Dante.
Inventing those special Tyranids was wrong imho.
Reassuring to hear doubt, I was beginning to think you were a GW employee.
