I've seen this before, and I still don't understand it. You're essentially saying "I didn't have campaigns with evil characters, so I'm glad WotC took away that option from other groups who did." Because here's the thing - in your group, there's no change. You didn't have evil characters. Now you...continue to not have evil characters. But now other groups have lost that option.
It's lose all around. You've gained nothing. Other groups lost something. Nobody gained anything.
It's like if there's a group who never used wizards, and then WotC explicitly made rules that didn't support wizard characters. Everyone who likes wizards would be pissed, but that one group that goes "Well my group never had wizards, so I like this change, and you'll just have to deal with it."
I was probably not too clear in my post, because this is a side issue... in brief, I'm glad WotC took away the
default option for evil PCs, because evil PCs tend to be problematic. Not always by any means, but there's definitely been a tendency in my experience. So I think it's for the best that evil PCs do not show up in
default play circumstances, such as the "bunch of random people I don't know roll up characters and meet for a one-shot" scenario I mentioned. In that particular scenario I'm personally happy to trade the "somebody playing an evil character in an interesting and mature way" possibility for the "someone playing an evil character as an excuse to be a jerk" possibility. The latter is far more likely IME. (Though truth be told, I haven't really participated in that kind of scenario for many years, have things changed?)
I also think it's probably better for groups with little or no play experience who are basically going with what is found in the core books and nothing else. It will be helpful for that sort of group to all be on the same page or at least not actively at cross purposes. Evil PCs just can open up a lot of social and table issues that may be hard to deal with. (Not
will or
must, but
can.) Why risk having those sort of issues crop up with a "newbie" group and possibly spoil their impression of the game?
I also don't see how WotC has "taken away the option" for your group to run with evil PC's. Your group can of course play however it likes - it's not the "default" group I'm talking about. If WotC omitted wizards, then sure that would impact your group's ability to have wizards, since a wizard class involves a lot of rule support you'd naturally look to WotC to provide.
But is there rule support for evil PCs that you feel is lacking? Maybe I have a blind spot here, but it seems like you don't need a bunch of rules from WotC for that. Instead, you need some conversation about expectations, boundaries, and perhaps ground rules that will be specific to your group and your campaign. WotC can't provide that.
