Hussar
Legend
See, that's where you lose me every single time this comes up, @Oofta.I just prefer the simulationist approach. It also doesn't mean DCs are arbitrary (or at least they shouldn't be), they should adhere to the fiction of the world.
This isn't simulation AT ALL. It's just not. It's 100% arbitrary decisions by the DM. What is the DC for a rough wall? Whatever the DM says it is. There is pretty much zero simulation going on in the 5e skill system. You keep saying you want a simulationist approach, yet completely reject anything that actually works as a simulation in favor of a half-baked system where you may as well just roll a random d30 for every check to set the DC. Because, there's one thing about it, the 5e skill system is about as far from simulation as you can get.