Butting in: no. Because generic means you can then flavor it however you want, whether you are running kitchen sink or walled garden or some blend of the two.
It goes back a bit too the premise of this thread: walled gardens have a hard time including new options because everything already has a place.
You both grabbed a single bit and latched onto it, but if you'd only read a bit further you'd see where I was actually going with it:
Or, perhaps, it doesn't benefit anyone, since the Kitchen Sink relies on external narrative sources and the Walled Garden has no issue overwriting something they don't like to fit something they do like into their setting... like Athasian Elves being -vastly- different from the elves of other settings.
I think the bland melange is just WotC's way of trying to avoid controversy in the most basic and corporate way possible: Make everything flavorless and hope no one complains about the spice.
Rather than, y'know, giving things their own flavor -without- the loaded real world politics tied to it in order to make a truly exceptional dish.
The point I was actually making is this.
"Bland and Generic" helps neither camp. It doesn't help those who like a bit of everything in their game because it lacks flavor and texture, and it doesn't help those who like to keep a strict idea of what they want in their game because it lacks flavor and texture.
Both groups can -add- Texture and Flavor to try and make it work for what they want, but lacking it in the first place serves neither side.
I mean, you hand me a series of racial traits and a name and ask me to put it into a campaign setting with no understanding of what you want it to be through description, artwork, identity, or culture, and I can build one from scratch to fit into my setting... But it almost certainly won't be what you were expecting or -want-, there. Or I can decide I don't wanna spend that time and discard it, entirely.
Meanwhile if you give me the description, art, identity, and culture I can decide whether or not it fits, change it -to- fit, or discard it entirely.
Bland and Generic doesn't help anyone.