Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
Given one of my complaints has been, more than once, that DMs treating the rules as merely suggestions is to blame for a significant chunk of MMI stuff, that's not exactly encouraging.
I think there are a few sets of preferences here, but I don't think people are largely arguing for the rules being mere suggestions. You have a large number of posters saying they like the GM always having the ability to be able to overide a rule or come up with a solution ad hoc to fit the situation, but I think you will also find these same people are largely following the rules. This position is more about edge cases with rules or specific actions the players take that rules don't seem to handle adequately. And in cases like mine, when I make such rulings, and I've said this here many times, I am transparent with my players and ask if they think the ruling is a fair way to go (i.e. player describes what they are trying to do, it is a little outside the box but seems like it would yield a bigger result than a mere swing of the sword or athletics roll, so I say "okay the is how I think it should be handled: make an X check, followed by a Y roll, and if you succeed on both, Z happens, if you just succeed on 1, Q happens. Does that seem reasonable?"). In this group it is largely about empowering the players by giving the GM authority to go beyond the rules to address specific actions, and it can also be about things like setting fidelity or having results that make sense. I think another position that isn't very present on this thread but is one you encounter and one people have alluded to, is there are groups where they just aren't as into system mastery and for them expediency of play is the most important thing. You will see groups like that where the rule of thumb is if they recall the rule off the top of their head they use it as written, but if not they let the GM just decide how to resolve it (an example of this might be groups who find it frustrating to read the entry on grapple in 3E every time it comes up and they just let the GM resolve it through opposed strength checks or some other method on the fly). I suppose in the latter they are sort of treating sections of the rules as suggestions, but overall they follow the rules, it is just a matter of prioritizing speed of play.