While I agree that Orcs should not just be green humans, I think you're setting up an unreasonable standard. Bacon Bit's description was fine and at least as distinct than Elves, Dwarfs and other such commonly used demihumans. Do you apply this standard to them as well? Do you not have Elves, Dwarfs or Halflings in your games as they could easily be replaced with humans?
Of course I do apply this standard to other humanoids and I lament their lack of distinctiveness in most settings, where they seem to just be stand-in for another human culture (and infravision). Orcs had the "distinctive characteristics" of being "evil by design" because Gruumsh made them so. It set that apart from many humanoid who were already just "humans with masks" and could be replaced by human, except that players want infravision. In my game, I make elves distinctive by emphasis their long lifespan (no, we won't help you to fight this evil guy, he'll be dead in 100 years, why bother with such a transient problem...) as it plays well with their haughtyness. I frown upon players who just play a human with pointed ear and infravision. Dwarves I try to make distinctive by having their culture emphasize greed to the point of self-destruction, but it's difficult to make it distinctive enough (because human culture tend to be greedy as well). I frown upon players who just play a human with beard, a phony scottish accent and infravision. Halflings I often don't include in worldmaking because I have yet to find a niche for them. I also try to link their cultural aspect to supernatural ones (Ancestor worshipping culture abound, but Eberron's elves, who worship ancestors undead walking around, is not something you could do with real life human culture, so having them be elves is okay IMHO -- they are already distinctive enough and I don't have a problem with certain type of magic being restricted to some races).
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