Then why 2 since 3 is better ? :)
It isn't better, I didn't say it.
My 5 is an educated guess just like your 2.
You say 5, I can say 6. You say 6, I can say 7. It leads to nothing. Question was about minimum level.
So I said that for me 2 is acceptable minimum.
NT tournaments are very different competitions and yes, low handling doesn't impede success if primaries are high relatively, even in U21. It's different from a league, especially at a level like US D.IV where you need to find an effective balance under economical restraint.
Perfect balanced player doesn't exist. It's always compromise between better/worse skills, salary, price or number of needed trainings in future. And HN=2 is acceptable if compromise is needed. If You have possibility to have better HN for free - You should always have better. But if You must sacrifice other things to increase HN for PF/C (money, other skills, training slots) then sometimes HN=2 could be very good choice.
Now measuring the effect of each skill when some probably work in group is a more difficult problem to solve than your calculation make it look.
For me there is no reason to complicate simple things. But if You have more complex calculations - please show us.