What I feel it comes down to is that its some combination of:
1) its a rule that keeps you from doing something you want to do (have medium armor AC), for no real reason, benefit or balance. It hurts the character that abides by it in a way that mechanically isn't justified or interesting.
2) its a rule that is fully circumventable (either trivially having wood armor or with some mechanics that exist solely to undue/circumvent/ameliorate this one mechanic) and has no actually effect in play.
3) its a rule that lets people feel like Druids now days are proper druids, like they were in the old days.
And with that feeling, I am fully in support of not half-baking the idea of 'no metal for the druid' into the class.
The version of this rule I would like to see is: "Druids that do not wish to wear metal armor don't have to; here are some options...."
1) its a rule that keeps you from doing something you want to do (have medium armor AC), for no real reason, benefit or balance. It hurts the character that abides by it in a way that mechanically isn't justified or interesting.
2) its a rule that is fully circumventable (either trivially having wood armor or with some mechanics that exist solely to undue/circumvent/ameliorate this one mechanic) and has no actually effect in play.
3) its a rule that lets people feel like Druids now days are proper druids, like they were in the old days.
And with that feeling, I am fully in support of not half-baking the idea of 'no metal for the druid' into the class.
The version of this rule I would like to see is: "Druids that do not wish to wear metal armor don't have to; here are some options...."