This is bordering on that bugbear that lurked in the heart of every warlord-healing thread that existed. The one who allows you to make longsword attacks with Charisma and turns crossbows into slings, longbows, firearms and magic bolts. The be-all-end-all of Fourth Edition. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named:
DISASSOCIATED MECHANICS
Thunderclap Dramatic music
My gaming style:
flavor = rules as written.
Flavor is even more important than mechanics. My DM style is, "Yes-No-Maybe". If a player tries to do something, I first adjudicate the effort narratively. Either the player action sounds plausible and succeeds, or sounds implausible and fails. Only if it sounds like the action genuinely could go either way would mechanics matter.
To be fair, I treat combat as if a mechanical minigame. But even then, narrative descriptions can override mechanics, especially when performing skill stunts.
I prioritize flavor over mechanics. So a strong Monk using Ki versus an Orc using brawn, does have narrative consequences.
4e made flavor inconsequential. Essentially, the 4e core strove to resolve all efforts with precise (and elegant) mechanics. The flavor was essentially an empty text box. There was usually a nice default flavor, but it was designed to fill the textbox in oneself. The flavor rarely interfered with the mechanical gaming balance.
Some of my difficulties with 5e are because a baked-in flavor feels incongruent or unappealing. 4e fans sometimes dont understand my objection. Theyre like: chill, its only flavor, just refluff it yourself. What they might not understand is, for me, narrative adjudication is the whole point of D&D as a storytelling game. So my ability to enjoy D&D depends on the core rules themselves having flavor that I either like or can live with.
I require the gaming system to have balanced elegant mechanics ... that cohere well with an easily customizable flavor.
For core rules, a light touch for flavor, ideally with two or three appealing options, is fine as long as the flavor isnt baked-in everywhere.
Unlike core rules, the purpose of a setting guide is to bake-in flavor everywhere, so everything gels together. I like some settings more than others.
While players and DMs enjoy freedom to customize and personalize flavor, the chosen flavor has narrative consequences.