I completely agree with that. And yet ....
There is a fundamental issue ... a divide ... going on. I don't want to get jargon-y, so I'll put it like this...
On the one side, you have people who think that the rules are all that matter. Which can be okay, but taken to an extreme, it leads to "D&D as videogame." In other words, whatever you can dream up to take advantage of the rules is totally fine, even if it makes "no sense"* at all.
On the other side, you have people who think that the rules are just some of the agreed-upon framework to allow the RPG to happen. In other words, rules will always be somewhat "game-y" (because it is a game, and because it is an approximation) but they are still trying to get an approximation of playing in some actual ... world.
As an individual, I fall on the latter side. As someone who, um, likes rules, I try to interpret rules based on the former side. But as a DM ... I have to deal with both sides. Because players comes in all kinds.
In my experience, there isn't much of an issue with someone trying to make a cool concept work within the rules- because I can always work with them to make it work- either through re-skinning or adjusting the rules. As I said before, if someone pitched a concept of a character that dual-wielded handcrossbows, I'd work with them to make it happen! Because if they thought that was cool, I'm sure it would be. The rules are there to try (and usually fail) to prevent people abusing them- but they shouldn't prevent players from having a good time with the character they want.
And the little persnickety rules of the action economy just do not matter for 98% of the players. Other than the occasional reminder that you ONLY GET ONE BONUS ACTION, DEREK!!!!! Ahem. But the reason that they are there, and they need to be parsed, is because that people will parse them to try and eek out every possible benefit they can, even if it means that they are carrying around 20 weapons so that they can drop and equip and juggle them at all moments.
Personally, I think that the rules are interesting to read, because I like to read and interpret rules. But ... I haven't had to utilize restrictions on "weapon juggling" because no one at my table does that. I think that if they did, we would have to discuss what they want from the game.
*This can always be a point of dispute, of course. What makes "no sense" to a person assuming a relatively "grounded and gritty" fantasy game is different than someone assuming a "wuxia and superheroes" fantasy game.
