We'll see.  I'm about a 2100 player over the board, but my analysis derives from the literature of players much stronger than myself and I've studied and checked this analysis, some positions more thoroughly, my database and my brain for ideas, and the chess engine to check them.  Black is not reduced to passivity here, quite the contrary, I think; it's prophylactic development.  It's true that White has so many plans however, and Black probably wishes to play differently against each one, so it's not very easy to play practically.  White has no very good pawn breaks at the moment, the result is that I will have time to develop.

In many lines outside of Sicilian positions and the Modern I would surmise that Paul quite likely has better experience and knowledge than me.  Openings study is something I have only invested time and effort in quite recently.  However I have a pretty good idea where this position will likely go, having studied it in detail in the time just before this tournament, plus I've played it before, although usually in bullet games online and also against the computer.

Optically White's position looks imposing, but I have not seen the precedent to translate it to more than a nominal advantage - I know that Paul is an excellent analyst so I am very interested in what he comes up with.  I'm playing the way I'm playing because it's less easy to find the correct resources here especially since many options are possible and there are many pieces on the board;  I think it is invaluable to learn how to play against different pawn structures in the Modern, the positions are very rich in new ideas --- my study here of Modern opening against all White setups is comprehensive, but there are many middlegame positions that I have not assessed beyond 'complicated, but Black has good and lasting counterchances', including the system that White has played.  It helps that have experience in the KID and Sicilian, and occasionally the French, there are many similarities in Black's goals - I have some reference points.  Part of my plan is that I can hopefully trick White into a worse than normal position relative to a more common opening.  Additionally the challenges in calculating concrete variations --- much easier here than the positions that I attained last year with Black, which were as complicated as any position I've ever analyzed.

I do have a bad habit of playing for complications for the sake of complications on occasion.  However according to my understanding of chess my decisions thus far are completely justified and I am intrigued to see how the middlegame evolves, the plans for both sides should become clear from about move 14 onwards.