Thomas Shey
Legend
The post I was quoting and replying to seemed to say that Vancian magic wasn't particularly chosen because it was appropriate to the setting, but only because it was mechanically workable option that made a good game (and was thus entirely a gamist choice).
I would argue that Gygax seemed to really like the Dying Earth books and find them inspirational to his splooshed together world (Cugel was the star of the second one and was cited by Gygax as a major influence of the Thief class, for example; in addition to lifting various spells; and the magic system) and that of course any magic system chosen to be in a game should be one that would work well in a game.
But like I said, he liked a lot of things. And again, I point back to the quote from the man himself for the reasons. What part of that quote says anything about "the setting" even being a factor? Nothing I can see. And part of that was that at the time of OD&D's publication "setting" was almost nonexistent; while elements from Gygax Greyhawk campaign showed up in the books, so did stuff from Blackmoor and odds and ends that, as best one can tell, were pulled up out of random inspiration. Setting just didn't seem to be something considered important until significantly later.