One of the HUGE problems with the DoaM debate is that everyone knows their lines. I think half the posters here just saw this thread was about DoaM, skipped reading the rest of the thread, and jumped right into their usual rebuttal.
Despite problems with the tone of the OP, he does list a staggering number of examples and problems with DoaM in the first post and not a single poster here has replied to them or tried to address them. There are almost not quotes of the first post. It's actually an impressively comprehensive summary.
No one is actually debating any more because no one is actually listening or responding, we're all just launching into pre-programmed responses. It's become a dance rather than a discourse. We might as well all just stop typing and begin cut-and-pasting past conversations.
Most of the attacks I see are ad hominem, but I'm fine with that, I don't expect unbiased moderation, in fact I don't really care.
The only use I have for people posting in this thread (and indeed, I invite them to do so, it helps explain why their thinking is so off), is so that I can eviscerate their deflections (with trivial ease, because I am in the right. It's kind of sad that I have to argue in a D&D forum that hitting with your sword should result in a different outcome than missing), and in the process, make it clear how absurd this is.
It's really simple. HP is said to be "abstract", meaning it's some kind of ectoplasmic goo that has no meaning when above 0 HP, but when at 0 HP, it ceases to be abstract, and has a concrete, unequivocal meaning : the foe is dead or knocked out, injured, bleeding on the ground or completely chopped in half. All of which were the result of a weapon attack, which some how missed the target and yet is also simultaneously a "direct strike".
People can ONLY use ad hominem arguments against me (and frankly I do not care, I only posted this to make D&D make sense again, because I intend to purchase and play it if it does), because they have no arguments.
There is no logical argument that can equate a weapon attack that missed but yet was a "direct strike". And no referring to what HP means (or rather doesn't mean), above 0 HP, because at 0 HP it has a clear, direct, blunt meaning, which GWF violates.