why d4 is better than e4

I prefer 1 d4 because in my experience people find it more difficult to handle than 1 e4. Also there seem to be more possibilities for playing non book lines which are still strong, so the opponent needs to think.

yeah too many people have annoying prep against 1.e4 which also implies that 1. c4 is good for that

I played 1 c4 for years and I consider that white's strongest opening ... but it was no good for tournaments, of which I use to play a lot. When games lasted four and a half hours each, you were worn out after three rounds.

For all of the folks who scream "1. e4!! is the best and everyone knows it," that is basically the point, don't play it, because everyone knows it.  I agree with 1. c4 as being strongest due to its transpositional power.  Against 1. e4 and 1.d4 though I go right out of the book, & play ...1. g5!! at 64% win clip; basically, nobody's seen it so they must start from scartch and despite it's atrocious look and feel, it works and is great fun and against the d4s because you're suddenly tactical, and against the e4s who think they are tactical, they ain't seen nothing 'till they've play the reversed Kolibri. 

Against 1 d4, 1 ... g5 just loses a pawn for no compen ....

I've played 1.e4 e5 2.Bb5 a few times. It's not so great against 1...c5 though... It's probably a little risky after 1...c6.

Alas, I've posted the merits of opening with 1. d4. Heh. But somehow my opinion seems miscontrued as, " better than 1. e4". Curious, because it's not my intention at all. I believe, truly, that playing 1. d4 is the start of one's evolution.

Maybe.  But consider that every time you switch from a sphere of knowledge where you've gained considerable experience to a new area that it's an evolution.

Yours may have happened to be e4 to d4 while another's may happen to be endgame theory to opening theory.

Hahhahh one of my good friend plays this reversed Grob ALWAYS (and normal Grob as well). I bet I would totally kick your ass!

As a d4 player, something daft like 1 ... g5 is just what I want. Er, did you notice that you just gave away a pawn with no compensation?

Yes indeed. It's much more relevant against 1.e4 (which I usually play

I noticed that pfren claimed, early on, as the voice of authority, that various people always open 1 e4.

You know, I think 1 e4 is a more defensive move than d4, provided white isn't intending a reversed London (New York) or something. The thing is, often they're keeping a draw in reserve via knowledge of drawing escape routes in theory. Far less such routes exist in 1 d4 ... the openings tend to be more unbalanced.

Also someone (I think it may have been he) claimed that people just blame their openings. I think the choice of opening is extremely important for a beginner, who needs to find something he doesn't feel lost in.

But the goal is to win the game, not to play e4. It's usually possible to play e4. You just need a different set of skills, like knowing where an IQP is a strength rather than a weakness. If black has clamped down so hard on e4 that white can't play it then black will have compromised his game in other respects. d4 games are about trading off weaknesses, relative mobility, bad bishops and so on. Like in the QGD, often black either gets a bad bishop or permanently weak pawns, whilst in the King's Indian, black's g7 bishop is his bad bishop and the c8 bishop is his good one, so again white heads for a knight vs bad bishop ending. It isn't a case of zero problems but different and often far more complex problems.

http://www.suenafuerte.cl/diego-riedemann-cuarteto-shah-mat

I like playing against the c3 Sicilian.

My main objection to 1. e4 is the need for learned theory.

You'd love playing against me then. I've been playing my own variation of the O'Kelly for 20 years. It's better than the "GM approved variations". The O'Kelly is one very strange area where the GM assessments are wrong. If you go through it, armed with a book by just about anyone, they come up with wrong assessment after wrong assessment and this is why I have so much success with it. It's like adding 200 onto my rating!

Shell~middlegame to endgame is definitely not the same as evolving from 1. e4 to 1. d4. Think about it.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.  Both first moves can lead to almost anything.  Heavy theory or rarely played, open or closed, dynamic or static, classical or hypermodern.

e4 is not losing but, unlike d4, it's probably not winning.