Sadrik
First Post
They are if you want to... In your campaign, you can link them together so that e.g. a Knight(Fighter) always has the Noble background, or a Thief(Rogue) always has the Thief background.
Merging backgrounds with subclasses would allow more freedom in background design (i.e. we wouldn't need each background to grant exactly 1 trait + 6 proficiencies) but then having them separate allows more freedom in player's design of their own characters (i.e. you can mix'n'match any background with any class).
Not really, I am looking at it from a perspective of campaign design. If you want to have a unique campaign setup, it makes sense to have new backgrounds for players to select. In some cases though subclasses will have to be barred thematically or rewritten to fit in. If they were the same widget it becomes easier for game designer and player.
I want to be able to maximize player opportunity to ingrain their character into the setting. Also, with the base assumptions presented in phb, subclasses as backgrounds you wind up with all kinds of interesting possibilities. A fighter, necromancer. A wizard with magic domain. A rogue with oath of justice. Or the more traditional set ups as well. These are possible otherwise but the crunch backing up the background is important. Subclasses are more crunch and a little background and Backgrounds are more background and a little crunch. Both merged you wind up with more crunch and more background.