RPG mainstream direction

[Ixal]

The mainstream will go into the same direction as it has for decades, meaning dumbing the game down to get more people to play the game and to account for the ever decreasing attention span of people.
There are only small variations to this to account for short term trends like renaming devils or not having differences between races because a small group instantly screams racism and so on. But the downward trend in complexity will continue.

I don't hope I'm right. I can't spit without hitting somebody confusing D&D for all RPGs and thinking that they all are played the same way.

Thats basically the key component for the success of D&D. People not knowing that there is competition.
Especially for 5E and its signal boost with Stranger Things.

Because face it, D&D doesn't do things that much better than other RPGs to explain its market share through quality.

 

[MNblockhead]

...and I've seen only one RPG book that was readily readable and useable on that mode: Pugmire Phone Edition.

Agree with your post. But regarding RPG material being easily readable and useable on a phone, I find the D&D Beyond able to be quite good. I've read entire books on the phone and it was comfortable and enjoyable doing so. Also, the Cortex Prime on-line version of the rules renders quite well in a mobile phone browser.