You may not have stats on the other players in a live game, but you would at least know who they are. You don't have to do a statistical analysis on Merson to know that he is a solid player. You would see Sylvia and instantly recognize him as the most agro luck box to ever get his chips in bad, capable of making moves that would leave Vanessa Selbst stunned. You would know that Negreanu is fond of suited connectors and that you might need to be wary of straight and flush boards against him.
But if there identities were masked you would have to play several
hands against each of them to figure out how each of them plays. Since they are not likely to play every hand, it might take some time to play enough hands against each of them to make an accurate read. In the meantime you may be losing pots when you call in places where you might otherwise fold if you knew who you were up against, or folding the best hand to a
bluff in spots where you might normally call if you knew it was a certain player.
Rather than being able to sit right down and get to work stacking chips, using the information that I've previously gathered, with or without copious notes or HUDs, I have to start all over from scratch. Where I would already have a solid read on several players at the table and be able to concentrate on trying to get a read on the players that I am unfamiliar with, I am repeatedly put in the position of being sat at a table full of unfamiliar players. Without the benefit of the information that I have invested time and lost chips to gather in previous sessions or tourneys, I have to reinvest all that time and effort all over again. I will have to pay for that information over and over again every time I join a table or play another tourney. Not only that, but I will also be unable to take advantage of my own table image as I will also need to reestablish that over and over again.
With all of that being said, I usually do very well on Bovada in both cash games and tourneys. However, I think without anonymous tables I would be able to do even better.