Sure. Exactly. It's a trade-off. That's what makes the game interesting.
And the fighter boring. ;P
....
It's not a factor of counter-optimizing, it's often that none of us really cares much about optimization as a concept.
You don't have to care about it to just do the exact opposite of what makes sense, and it's not like you can be at all familiar with the game and not understand the difference "half as many hps."
So, yeah, dumping CON for your wizard is willfully looking at what'd be optimal (or just prudent), and doing the exact opposite. For concept.
"...not that there's anything wrong with that!"
I don't have anything against people who view the game like that...until they tell others that it's the only right way to play the game.
Exactly. And I have no problem with you stepping up and being counted ("One!") as someone willing to put concept first in that very sub-optimal way.
It's when you assert:
I think wizards with a sub-10 Constitution scores are rather common.
That I have to point out all the logical reasons there really probably wouldn't be at all common. (Oh, and, of course, they'll be rendered less common by being instantly killed at first level by anything that happens to dish them 10hps.)
More common than the 0 one might expect from a cynical power-gaming stand point, but not "rather common."
Maybe, like the high-CHA fighter, just technically possible. Nothing stops you from putting your fighter's best score in CHA, nothing stops you from dumping your wizard's CON.
Maybe something should, but nothing does.
where someone said they judge players who don't optimize and would give their fighter a high charisma poorly, while simultaneously telling others to respect different play styles.
Y'know, I think you called Sadras out on that, but I couldn't find where he actually did the first bit.
Y'may have just been the victim of some jumbled attribution or lack of threading, there. It happens a lot* around here.
*Citation needed. ...C'mon, someone jump in and tell me not to make blanket statements about ENWorld behavior, you know you want to. Demand to see the statistics!