I agree completely. And they probably do. Deep down inside their dark, nasty souls. If they even *have* souls, that is.You know, I wonder if there is some other metric that is being prioritized. If everyone survives with little to no permanent cost and some members of the team are un-optimized, is that still a bad thing for players like the OP? Or is it like when I used to play RTS games and I would try to get the best kill to loss ratio or fastest time to a milestone? I knew I would ultimately prevail in the conflict, but I wanted to see if I could win by some other standard.
If everyone at a table of mixed players - some optimizers, some not - survives a harrowing adventure, do the optimizers secretly (or perhaps even loudly) fume that they could have been just a bit more efficient? I wouldn't imagine so, but I could be wrong.
Which is why I was careful to point out that the metric I (okay, we, I guess) identified was the only metric "worth considering". Not necessarily the only metric that exists. Because if you are in mixed playstyle company, everyone obviously needs to have room to have their kind of fun. Making it to the next adventuring day means the players can continue to have *that* fun.