See, the difference is you said that "gated" and "informed" were the same thing, which is demonstrably wrong because -- and get this, it's wild -- those are different words with different meanings. Crazy, right?Just because you assert something doesn’t make it true. Especially when it’s demonstrably wrong.
And just to be clear, I'm not white knighting Mercer. i don't care one whit about that. But using random skill checks as a part of improvisation is a tried and true method with a long history that is not related to gating content at all.