I don't have a solution but this doesn't seem like "rookie" type mistakes to me. I've played with plenty of veteran DMs whose application of the rules was about as consistent as a half-rotten jellyfish, and just as likely to sting you unexpectedly!
I found this blogpost to be irredeemable nonsense. It's so far off compared to my own perception of the evolution of RPGs that there is nothing to discuss, I'm just here to express my disappointment.
In that case I'd suggest staying away from all Stranger Things themed threads. You've been lucky so far, but the show has been out for a while and it's hard to discuss it without significant spoilers.
Season 5 is almost out! You made it this far, now we're on the home stretch!
If there's no realistic legal way to recover the consigned goods, it seems like the best option for Green Ronin or other affected publishers is to hire some runners to burn Diamond's warehouses to the ground. At least that way the liquidation won't saturate the market for these products.
You need a Master tier subscription to D&D Beyond to enable content sharing, so I guess this particular DM didn't want to spend any extra money on the campaign.
Are you sure you're playing D&D? I've never once seen a group of adventurers stop searching just because they found the McGuffin. There is usually more loot to be found, every inch of the dungeon must be examined carefully!
Even if people can't tell that it's AI generated, they can tell that it's basically an underleveled Synaptic Static and wonder why WotC is publishing redundant spells.
I'm as big an AI enthusiast as anyone on this forum, but even I can tell that the quality of current AI generated content is...
Those traditions have endured countless other new and innovative games entering the market with new ways to play. I don't think this time will be different.