Ok, let's try this one last time, because the pedantry is getting too annoying.
Any form of government that is not fully enfranchised, democratic and ruled by law is, IMO, evil. Someone upthread pointed to Athens as democratic. If that's your definition of democracy, well, there's a reason that we're not understanding each other. That's democratic in the sense that some people get a vote, but, not if you're disqualified for the heinous crimes of being a woman, poor, or various other reasons.
Now, it's true that I misused the term lampshading, sorry. My bad. I did mean it as "sweep under the rug". Again, my misuse.
To be honest, I'm finding this absolutely baffling. That anyone would actually defend any state that isn't fully enfranchised, democratic and ruled by law boggles my mind. It's actually rather frightening to be honest. That people would look at something like Waterdeep and think, "Yeah, that's not too bad. I wouldn't mind living in that system"
But, yeah, I'm done here. This was a minor point that was meant to reference how wargames elide (see, I can learn, I didn't use lampshade) the horror of what's being made into a game. I didn't quite realize that people actually
believe that undemocratic systems of government without universal enfranchisement and basic human rights was a good thing. Who knew?
You all have a good day now.