Look at it this way: they've already gotten people with disposable income on the internet to give them three hundred thousand dollars for a campaign they already made.
Imagine how many new creators would be happy to have a fraction of that to start something, whereas this is people expecting...
The problem with this sort of design is, let's take Power Word: Kill.
If your DM tells you exactly how much HP a creature has left, then the moment a creature drops below 100, then if the situation is right to use that spell, every player will just ignore said creature because they know the...
I feel like there's one simple point that needs to be raised in this thread that somehow hasn't been brought up at all:
Cthulhu by Torchlight.
I feel it's very telling that Mearls wants to criticize 5e control spells, yet a book he helmed has spells that impose crippling effects on...