Not so much. Orcs and halflings were specifically excluded by the authors as being too much like Tolkien.
So they were excluded for arbitrary metagame reasons rather than something to do with the setting. And because the designers excluded halflings they inflicted Kender on the world; I think it's screamingly obvious that the designers made a huge mistake.
Maybe, sure someone's ancestor sold their soul, but in a setting that's explicitly about good vs evil on a grand scale, maybe...maybe not. A villain? 100%. A PC? Probably not.
And when you start using that logic you are telling me that the assumptions of your campaign are not ones I want. Someone's ancestor did something bad
and therefore their descendent is inexorably, inevitably evil? They are damned because of their blood and don't have free will?
Yeah, people spend a lot of time trying to get out of constraints rather than accepting them. I'm not sure how creative it is to be told "no" then knee-jerk fight against that. It's a common reaction, yes, but it's not particularly creative.
Ideas by themselves are almost worthless. Creativity is all in the implementation.
Also, maybe I'm weird but "treating people like adults" includes expecting them to follow the rules they agreed to and not whine about it. Setting up a game with constraints then having players rail against those constraints is functionally identical to a player complaining that they're out of spell slots and should get more.
This is something that should be applied first and foremost to the DM. If you get to set the constraints and the players followed the constraints then you do not have a leg to stand on when they subvert them and you start whining no matter how far outside what you expected they go. You set the constraints, they met them. The fault is entirely, completely, 100% on you simply because you can't handle creative players. The big difference here is that not only did the DM agree to the rules, they
set the rules they agreed to and now are complaining about.
Alternatively you can stop treating the players like children and make setting the constraints a collaborative process. Instead of focusing on the constraints you focus on your vision. Let the PCs expand on that. Rather than trying to set constraints, set inspiration.
I've said in the past and I'll say again I've seen more entitled DMs than I have entitled players in terms of absolute numbers. And I've unsurprisingly seen way more players than I ever have DMs.