It also appears that there are also some people who refuse to see someone with an ability score of 15 and a full standard array as extraordinary, no matter how amazing that is compared to the vast majority of the race's population.
Sure, it's extraordinary. And? Why not let the stat be a 16?
I think that we're mostly using Strength partly because there is more of physical indicator, whereas a race's better reflexes aren't as outwardly visible. Mostly however, it is because it can be translated into an actual measurement, which other abilities can't. (Even Intelligence corresponding to IQ doesn't really work.)
Any rule that prohibits increasing Strength is also going to prohibit increasing every other stat as well. Unless you want to make it a rule that you can put that ASI in any stat
except Strength?
And yes, Strength does have an actual measurement associated with it--most specifically, carrying capacity.
Not damage, because a high-Dex halfling with a short sword inflicts as much damage as a high-Strength goliath with a short sword and nobody cares about that; it's considered precision with the halfling and force with the goliath. However: goliaths and other big races have Powerful Build, which lets them lift more than a halfling anyway.
And do most DMs
really require their PCs to count up every pound they are carrying? Most of the time, carrying capacity is abstracted and only matters if the PC is trying to perform a singular feat of strength, like lifting a fallen boulder off the trap door, which most of the time, that would be an Athletics check (and goliaths are auto-proficient in Athletics).
And it would be perfectly legal for the DM to say "sure, Bobbo, you can try to lift the boulder, but it's physically larger than you so you're going to have disadvantage on your check."
(Unless Bobbo's player said that they wanted to
roll the boulder out of the way, or improvise a lever. Those would also be Strength-based, but they aren't lifting.)
And let's face it: there's a trope we all know of the big burly fighter failing to perform a feat of strength because of a poor roll, but the weedy little mage manages to pull it off because of a good roll.
People who want to keep ASIs as an option are saying that a halfling being able to lift 450lbs (10x body weight) is fine.
You said that they can't imagine a strong halfling.
You can't seem to imagine a halfling with a Strength of 16.
That's what I'm talking about.
Non-optimisers aren't going to pigeonhole halflings as weak: If they want to play a strong halfling character then they will.
Its only the optimisers who will pigeonhole a halfling as weak, because they must have that extra +1 to consider playing a character.
Nope.
And again, I hardly think that saying "my character worked hard to be where they are, therefore, it makes sense that they focused on this one stat that's needed for their class.
Can you point to three?
Just three people in the whole of this thread who have actually said that.
I am not going to go through a hundred pages of thread, but I
will point out that Scribe has said that they prefer racial caps and racial penalties to stats, and have even gone so far as to suggest that they might play something other than D&D rather than allow floating ASIs. At least, that's what I got out of some of their posts.