I mean, during the 5e open playtest there was a pretty consistent sentiment on the WotC forums that 4e showed people how the sausage was made and that ruined their appetite for it. There was a sizable contingent of people who specifically wanted 5e to be less transparent.
I think a problem you’ll run into trying to do this as fans is that we don’t know a lot of the reasons behind the design choices. We can make some reasonable suppositions based on analysis of the underlying math and things that the designers have said, but ultimately we don’t actually know. Imagine the arguments over what to say or not to say over encounter building and adventuring day guidelines, for example.
I call these people "unappreciative fools"
it's way easier to modify a system if you know how it works and how parts interact!
To be fair, though, when has fear of an absolute crapstorm ever stopped the internet from internetting?
I was imagining less a designer's intent annotation as a users' guide annotation with 6 years of practical experience behind it.
And that's why they don't. If they are open and honest about the hows and whys of the sausage making then your average 3PP and fan can make "WotC quality" content for 5E. As it stands, WotC can't even produce quality content with any kind of regularity. See the broken power creep that is the Twilight and Peace domain clerics. I honestly think their strategy this go around is put a crimp in the hose so fans will beg for and fawn over whatever does eventually get released.
That and a lot of fans apparently don't want things very well balanced at all. 4E solved the perennial problem of the linear fighter, quadratic wizard and fans largely rejected it. I honestly think a lot of the power gamers, munchkins, and fans of god-like wizards just got loud and consistent enough that WotC caved. Though, to be fair, you could easily breakdown the assumed resources of the classes and build something for the non-casters. The martial classes would look a lot closer to Matt Colville's illrigger than they do now. Lots and lots of resources to spend. The fighter needs something like 2-3x what they have to be on par with the wizard...if you eliminate things like forcecage, limited wish, and wish.
The martial players were the ones who actually pushed back on the idea of complex Fighters.
Some, sure. All, not even close. And how is WotC going to tell if a rando person on a survey is a martial player or a caster player, beyond self reporting? In our group, and several extended groups in our area, all enjoyed the balance and options of the "complex" fighters and other martials. 5E does some really good stuff, but there's a lot of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But sure, even if there's a need for simple fighters, that doesn't mean they have to be subpar. Which they are, currently.
