To this I would ask, what do you personally do to fix this perceived problem?
Also, what exactly constitutes a bad DM?
For me a bad DM is a DM that has only ever run D&D games. Or only runs published adventures. Or only runs games that focus on combat. I skimmed a copy of Xanathar's and was devastated to find a "downtime" system that is basically built so groups can skip over anything that involves roleplaying things not focused on combat. To me a DM that uses a system like that is the worst kind of DM as their games probably have, IMHO, virtually no roleplaying. This is because to me roleplaying is the part of the game where the PCs are interacting with NPCs in something other than combat. I am not one of the DMs that thinks combat stats and magic items and mechanical bonuses means character depth. I have met many DMs and players that can't tell me what happened in their game, all they can do is rattle off combat stats or mechanical information.
So, how do we as a community decide what a DMs best practices should be? As far as I can tell from many of the interactions I have had on this forum, many would consider me a bad DM. Does that mean I should change how I DM to make others happy, or just not advise people of how I DM for fear of corrupting them into my bad DMing style?
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I think people can be jerks, but I am very skeptical about the idea that DMs can be objectively bad as there is no standard to live up to, the hobby is far to varied for that. With luck there will be a sudden spike in interest among the novices to become DMs and they will all start playing Mythras and Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard and M-Space and Far Trek and the hobby will be saved by system much better than D&D!
