Neonchameleon
Legend
If you make character optimization not pay off, however, then you have an impossibly generic system, because your choices don't matter at all. The system would have to be "perfectly balanced."
This isn't actually true. You just need a narrativist system (3:16 will do).
But even where this is true it is deceptive. Talking about perfect balance is like talking about a frictionless environment. You may never reach it. But this doesn't mean that lowering friction doesn't improve the running of the engine - or the play of the game.