D&D 5E Reverse Engineering the Real Rules of Attunement

[Sword of Spirit]

Yes it is, but there are other example in the DMG: the driftglobe, or the minor item property table on page 143; there may be others

I'll address it in more detail later (probably on my follow up topic), but note that light generation only comes in at step 3, which only applies to permanent equippable combat items. The driftglobe, as a non-equippable item is exempted from attunement at step 2 (along with the lantern of revealing), and so takes no notice of steps 3+.

 

[Ancalagon]

I'll address it in more detail later (probably on my follow up topic), but note that light generation only comes in at step 3, which only applies to permanent equippable combat items. The driftglobe, as a non-equippable item is exempted from attunement at step 2 (along with the lantern of revealing), and so takes no notice of steps 3+.

I see - and again, thank you for this analsysis!

 

[ad_hoc]

In the OP it mentions that rarity is a measure of power.

It usually correlates to power but it is literally representative of how many there are in the world. Rarity really does mean rarity.

We can see this in the weird items. Items which are strange tend to be rarer even if not more powerful.

We can also see this with consumables. In the various optional rules they are priced I think at half the amount of permanent items but are nowhere near as valuable as that. And not nearly as game defining.

What they are is rarer than the more common items.