While it is one of the most powerful cards in Commander, WotC decided it is ubiquitous enough that restricting it would be impractical
Thieves' Auction is one of the most chaotic cards on the block, flipping games on their head whenever it resolves
This version does a good job of telling the specific story of the Minstrel creating higher difficulty fights, but it doesn't reward you for putting Towns in your deck unless you can afford to invest five mana, which often won't be the case in Standard
Saboteur triggers also play well with deathtouch creatures since the keyword encourages your opponents to leave your creatures unblocked
Zakeel helped establish the direction early on and shepherded the project from a top-level perspective the entire way
Scroll Rack and Land Tax was Boros card advantage back in the day, and while today Id still run Land Tax, Scroll Rack isnt necessary and is too durdly for this kind of deck