Its not so much having a problem with it per se, as much as the appearance of WotC takiing a side in the edition wars by putting a label on something that is unique to a particular edition. If the real goal is making it clear that not every option is going to be available in any given game world, why not just be clear about that? The same goes for new players, as I'd rather WotC and the game itself present diffferent things in a neutral tone, as opposed to a tone that could be mistaken for favoring one thing over another.
What tone are you aware of in the D&D Next text? It hasn't been written; it has no tone. All we have is a couple of concepts from Schwalb's head on his blog; we don't have one iota - not one word, not even a game name - of actual text. It could be in a big bright pink OPTIONAL! sidebar, for all we know. It could be an appendix, a separate leaflet, a chapter, a sentence.
There isn't an intention to be clear about. It's just Rob floating a vague idea.
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