CapnZapp
Legend
Honestly?For me it is useful to have a guideline for about how many such NPCs there could be in our world. That gives context to how significant the presence of a single one is, and how many might be engaged in a given affair. That yields better consistency, which per-Tolkien sustains the fiction. Can you explain better your objection to a guideline for a rough number of them?
I think the game breaks down. The fantasy worlds suggested by D&D doesn't really hold up to even a casual scrutiny.
I find it best to make the world completely opaque to the players and their characters. The less they know, the less they can (and will) meddle and abuse.
It simply draws away attention from whatever adventure at hand you have.
Zapp
PS. It's not that I don't see the appeal in the idea. It's that in my experience, it doesn't work, and moreover: it actively messes with the real purpose of playing D&D - telling stories with the PCs at the center.
While the notion that there should be X high level of this, Y of that, is entirely understandable, I truly believe D&D is better off with the 5E approach, where you simply never find any NPC more important or qualified than CR 2, 3:ish (CR 5 tops) unless the adventure or DM has specifically put it there.