Hussar
Legend
Taking one outlier example of a particular style of play from the 1e DMG and expanding that to an overall Gygax advocation of that style of play is a rather extreme stretch.
All this shows me is that the 5e designers are just as capable of making mistakes as anyone else.
I've been consistently arguing for blind declaration (e.g. that a spell such as Shield must be cast before the to-hit is rolled). The 'time travel' piece (e.g. waiting to cast Shield until you not only know you're hit but how much damage you'll take, so if it's just a few h.p. you can let it pass but if it's a heavy blow you can cast to undo it) is merely a subset of that argument.
Lan-"shields up!"-efan
Sorry, but, no. That's not a mistake. 5e is chock-a-block with these sorts of mechanics. There's tons of them. Virtually every class has at least one of them. Many races also have them. You mentioned the similarities to Magic The Gathering, and, well, that's pretty apt. There's a shopping list of interrupt mechanics that let you "go back in time" by your definition.
IOW, this is a core element of play, not a mistake.
I may not need to say that, but it does in fact say it. "On a hit, roll damage" is equal to "On a miss, don't roll damage." It's just the way language works.
As an English teacher, I can categorically say that you are wrong here. No, language most certainly doesn't work that way. But, I can see why you would go down this road. This entire thread has been spent wasting time trying to teach the English language to you. I cannot see it as anything other than very bad faith on your part [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION].