Hussar
Legend
I have a sneaking suspicion that you are correct. To me, transparent means exactly what it says on the tin. We can know, because the system tells us, how a particular value has been determined. Because we know how this value has been arrived at, we can then make an informed decision as to whether that particular value is the best value for whatever it is we are doing at the time, or should we ignore those values and substitute our own?I suspect that 95% of the confusion and disagreement in this thread is due to the word "transparent" regularly being treated as if it means something along the lines if "clearly quantified, ranked and priced".
In an opaque system, we have no idea. Why is a Potion of Superior Healing a Rare magic item? Well, mostly it's rare because the next level down of Potion of Healing is an Uncommon item. Not a particularly good answer, really. Why is a ring of protection more rare than a cloak of protection? Again, we have no idea.
Someone upthread asked why goblins have less HP than ogres. Well, the system tells us exactly why. A goblin has a CR of X (I don't have my books in front of me, so, the exact value isn't all that important to this discussion) which is lower than an ogre's CR. So, a goblin has less HP than an ogre. If the goblin had a higher CR (maybe it's a goblin champion of some sort) then we would expect the goblin's HP to be higher than the ogre's. And we know this because the system for determining CR is spelled out in considerable detail in the DMG.
Yet, apparently, knowing exactly how a dragon's HP and Ac and CR and whatnot are determined somehow doesn't diminish the sense of wonder of dragons in the game. Yet, again, apparently, if we were to apply the same level of detail to magic items, it would make magic items humdrum and boring. Not exactly sure how that works.