So, just to be clear then, you're not an actual, professional, role playing game developer? And you acknowledge that the work you do is significantly different from games like D&D?
I've made all types of games, including RPGs. Table-top RPGs, no, but those obey the same set of logic and narrative consistency rules as do many other computer-based ones. Logic is universal, game design is not strictly limited to what type of processor it's run on (the human mind vs a multi-core GPU). Sure, the human mind is vastly superior in many ways, but what I can make a computer do in real time would make most DMs feel like the Reaper kicked in the door to the bathroom stall and said "time's up" while they were on the throne.
Solving game design issues in D&D is actually rather trivial for someone in my profession. I solve much harder bugs all day, every day, 12 hours a day, for years at a time, and ship games played by thousands of times more players than each iteration of D&D ever has.
Besides that, any child knows that a sword that wooshes by your head doesn't hurt you unless it actually connected. Which is why it's so banal that I even have to argue this, or that it's dragged on this long.
Imagine the Archery fighting style dealt damage on a miss. It would be ludicrous, right?
Now explain, in physical terms, how a sword attack can deal damage on a miss. Like,
damage. Not tiring you, which is NOT damage.
The physics of why archery cannot result in damage on a miss are the exact same (basic newtonian physics), as those for melee attacks. The
EXACT same. We're talking, basic collision detection modelling here. Momentum transfer.
Nobody has ever died of a few seconds of strenuous activity, even an old man with a bum ticker and a harem would last longer than a kobold vs a fighter with GWF.