EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Certainly not! But there are plenty of unwise game design choices that are kept for reasons other than helping to make a rich, positive game experience for the people playing it. Tradition is a big one. Controlling player responses is another--remember the "no playable gnomes!" debacle, where something like over 90% of players don't play gnomes and never have and yet somehow delaying them for a later book was an absolutely unconscionable affront.Then what are they doing in the book? Don't tell me ignoring such rules just recently became popular.
As bad as WotC are about giving players perverse incentives, the playerbase itself is often ready, willing, and able to bring illogical or perverse expectations to the table. Fail to include a rule that "should" be there, even if almost no one uses it, and you might have a riot on your hands. I have found no rhyme nor reason beyond "but it should be there, even if it doesn't matter!" in over two decades of interacting with this fandom. It just is what it is.
If it is merely acceptable to others, then it ideally should still be excised. Acceptable is a pretty low bar. Conversely, if that same rule is well-liked by the others, then yes, we have a problem. We cannot serve all possible interests perfectly evenly. Some people want Wizards to be simply superior to all other classes. Some want to excise non-casters from the game entirely (or, in some cases, to have non-casters become casters in some way over time.) Some want to excise magic from the game entirely. Etc., etc., etc. No matter what you do in game design, you will always be choosing some preferences that won't, or can't, be served by your game.What if it's tedium for one player, but acceptable for others? Does that one player just not have to do it?
But it is simply true that, all else being equal, you want to design a game such that the fewest number of people possible will feel that the rules are tedious. Intentionally trying to make something tedious for most players so that people will avoid over-using it is simply unwise game design.