People want to make things as easy as possible, even if it removes all challenge and fun. Optimizing the fin out of games is a common problem designers have to look out for. We’re also great at justifying ourselves. So it’s no wonder, really.
I never see anyone offering an alternative name that isn't dismissive of our concerns.
I agree. Someone in a blog post invented dissociative mechanics as a way of describing the issue he was seeing. Obviously it dissociatiated him and it does me also and for the same reasons. Once you get a few people agree on the way mechanics affect them it is a thing. There is something there. So I agree, let's stop bickering about terms as it is a fools errand. As a topic, no one is asking you to agree it affects you the same as it does others. It is an issue and it was an issue that WOTC should have considered. I have to think the tiny effort to make 5e non-dissociative would have increased sales more than enough to pay for the minimal effort.
