At that point, why demand nuance and shades of grey if you're set on your own black and white position?(Edit: generic "you")
I mean that's certainly part of the problem, but I don't know how far we get to push this without a Mod hitting me with red text.
I performed a bit of a thought exercise regarding this topic, and just kind of walking back from 5e, frankly so divorced from the source as to be borderline irrelevant, and the roots of Western Fantasy, and D&D.
Hopefully this doesn't earn me another strike, but it's all foundational to this game.
The game has been called a colonization simulator. If one looks at early adventures, modules, and play loops, what happens very often?
Go out, find people who are not like you, kill them, and take their stuff and/or land.
Another blog called D&D a simulation of the Wild West.
The OP outlines how the roots of the Paladin can absolutely be drawn with not too long a line, to Crusades.
Do we brave the waters of Paladin/Cleric, God's that actually exist and talk to their followers, and in some cases demand Holy War?? Wizards doesn't seem to be.
"Load up the Galleon boys, we are sailing to the land of Gold!" said the Spaniard.
There is a lot of baggage, skeletons in the closet, of history, and yep if one wants to go back to the roots of the game, they will find them.
Now, do I think that's what 5e is? Not remotely.
But if one has issues with these things, they are there if you go back far enough, and if that's that's problem?
Well, that's up to the individual. Where it's fine to apply that black and white moral thinking.
Just don't assume that it can be applied to everyone else as if 'you' (not you
@MoonSong ) are the final judge of what is moral and right.