Ya know, people have been using substitutes for "those weird dice" since the very first days of D&D
As did I, for about two weeks before I got my Basic Set. Since then, I haven't looked back. Had the appropriate dice not been included in the box, or had they not been easily and cheaply available separately, I wouldn't have stuck with the game - the substitute was already tiresome.
And now, in 2011, I have a large box of dice of all the standard polyhedrals: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. That's enough for just about any RPG out there. I don't have a d7, d14, d30, or any other non-standard type. And although they are available online, they aren't available in either FLGS to which I have easy access, and they aren't cheap.
and it really isn't that hard to, say, use a d10 and a d6 instead of a d30 and still generate 1-30,
Yes, and that's the easiest of the required substitutions. As noted, the suggested workaround for a d14 is to roll d20 and reroll anything 15+. That's going to get old really fast.
and with the rapid increase in the number of tablets and smart phones, I don't think that an electronic aid would be all that unwieldy...
I have neither a tablet nor a smartphone, and no intention of getting either. Nor do I want the distraction of lots of electronic devices at the game table.
Besides, dice roller programs are a poor substitute for the real thing.
Bad choices? Rather, I'd say they are simply choices that are different than what you would have done.
Fair enough. In my opinion, it is a bad choice.
So - you use power cards in 4e but wouldn't buy a different game where you'd end up using the equivalent of power cards? I fail to see how using a memory aid for one game is any more difficult than using the same type of memory aid for another game.
My logic is uncertain where Dungeons & Dragons is concerned. So, I'm willing to forgive 4e of certain things I don't like that would be a deal-breaker for any other game, including Pathfinder.
So, yeah, I'll grudgingly accept power cards in 4e, but not in DCC. That's not logical, it's the value of the label D&D on the cover.