One person said it could mean nothing.
One person who was the only one to respond to me. I can't just assume that everyone else has access to different lore. And while they said "could mean" they also never offered anything else.
No, they didn't. they said that you could make such a world, if you wanted to, and it wouldn't be out of line with the PHB lore, and I'm pretty sure they didn't actually say that they would be the only farmers, just that many human cities might rely on halfling farmers.
What is the difference between your "you could make such a world" and my post which says "then we could assume a world"
Assuming a world is the same as making such a world, isn't it? You seem like you are splitting hairs for no reason.
No, it isn't. You're jumping to that as if it is a necessarily conclusion, but it is not. "laid back friendly farmers" is a quick description, not some sort of literal statement of exactly what all halflings are. It's what their vibe is, in general. I don't understand why you're having such a hard time distinguishing between general ideas about things that are common, and universal literal statements of absolute facts about all halflings.
But it isn't a general description of their vibe. Unless in general they are all farmers. And we can showcase really quickly and really easily that they have to be more than that. They are farmers, yes, but they are also going to need cobblers, tanners, bakers, and millers. The most common occupation I've seen are halfling innkeepers. There are also supposed to be nomads, which means they have hunters and merchants too.
So, "farmers" isn't accurate for halflings. Yet, all we see talked about and depicted is the pastoral life of a farm. It is more accurate to say that halflings are commoners... and that is true of everyone. Most elves are commoners. Most dwarves are commoners. Most Humans are commoners. That is the definition of "commoner"
Did you poll a significant number of people? I only ever saw one person reply to you about that, so where are you getting "everyone" from? Why are you so bent on this throwaway line? Stout halflings resemble dwarves more than they do humans, in some ways, and people in the world take note of that and wonder why. What is confusing about that? I genuinely don't understand why these things bother or confuse you, in part because you refuse to extrapolate your reasoning for anything without hyperbolic melodrama.
I said "one person" in the first sentence. And there was a second who agreed with them.
And the reason I am getting "hung up" on this line is because it is another brick in the foundation I am building. I had people that were saying that I'm making up this lack of lore, but we have entire races devoted to mixed-blood between humans and other beings. Yet the only answer I got to "why does this say halfings and dwarves were mixing" was that they weren't actually mixing and it was a lie.
Sure, I can believe that people in the world can make up baseless rumors that are false about different races based on superficial similarities. But this baseless rumor that is supposedly false was written into the description of the race. It is also the only baseless rumor written into any of the races that is not specifically called out as being false. In fact, it might be the only baseless rumor, but I could be forgetting some other ones.
So, if this rumor is false... why is it included in the book? What value was there is making one of the only things about the Stout halflings be a total fabrication made up by folks who have no idea of the truth, without calling it out as such.
And, if this rumor is true... why is there nothing written anywhere about how and why this happened?
It all points to the thing I've been saying. Halfling lore seems incomplete and sometimes poorly written. That's why I made the post and why I'm trying to show that this idea is just boggling.