That is one thing I like about my group, and maybe its less common than I assumed, is none of the players are competing with each other. They do get fired up when a fellow player rolls nutty stats during PC creation since they know he should be effective in helping the party do what they are doing. Of course that PC usually ends up dying withing seconds of the rest of them, but there is no complaining about Frank having 2 18's when Bill only has a 16 max stat. I keep reading how Pole Arm Mastery is broken, and I see the POV but the rest of the group is loving having Pole Arm Pete along for the ride. Of course we are a stable group of players and not a random AL table.
One thing that a lot of people seem to miss (and sometimes I'm one of them) is that there are multiple ways to play D&D. The game is incredibly flexible and can support many play styles.
Some people prefer story and character development with combats being relatively rare. Others prefer dungeon crawls with relatively little in the way of storyline or roleplaying. Some groups are very competitive and enjoy an adversarial style of play with the DM actively attempting to kill of PC's. In others the PC's effectively have "plot armor" until they get to a climactic battle. Some prefer a very controlled starting point and treat most of the game like a tactical combat simulator with some RP tossed in, with both the players and the DM fact-checking each other on the rules and tactics. Some prefer to roll their characters and gamble on their stats (or just like seeing where the dice take them). Others prefer to control every aspect of character creation - players control their characters, DM's control the monsters.
None of these are the "wrong" way to play D&D. I personally dislike rolling for stats, but don't think it is wrong or somehow "inferior" if other groups prefer it.
Where I tend to get snarky is when I think someone is acting as if their preferred style (random vs point buy in this thread) is somehow inherently more "right" or "superior" and people who prefer to play differently are doing it wrong somehow.
"My way of creating a pretend elf wizard is more "realistic" than your way of creating a pretend elf wizard."
"You don't do it my way because you are afraid and can't handle the dice!"
"You don't do it my way because you don't trust your players and you are all dishonest."
"It was good enough for me 30 years ago, I don't see why it isn't good enough for you today. Now get off my lawn!"
If I see that I'll mock you and challenge you until I get bored. (Because I have too much free time on my hands...)
