So, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, in the context I was responding to.
I was responding to how supposedly, a significant number of people have to (substantially?) houserule D&D to make it do what they want.
My response to that is that, we D&D gamers have done that, traditionally, anyway. It is not new. If what they want is for the game to play more like older, traditional rules, it is even more ironic - it is arguing that folks should not take traditional steps to get traditional playstyle.
It is unclear to me how players not being able to switch tables keeps people from using house rules.
Because people like consistency. They don't want to necessarily learn a bunch of rules that are only applicable at certain tables. Especially if they play at multiple tables. "Oh, wait, I've been rolling critical damage all wrong. It's
Bob's table that maxes one die, not
Steve's table."
Because on places like reddit and other discussion boards, if you talk about house rules, you get a ton of people telling you the rule is bad, OP, unnecessary because of XYZ, and so on. Meaning that people may be loathe to trust those who use them.
Because if your table has a houserule you like, especially one that you think is needed to make the game fun, realistic, actually playable, to your particular standards, whatever, and you try to move to a table that doesn't like it, you may not actually want to move to that table. Or someone new who comes to your table hates the rule and it causes strife. Or if you lack social graces, you may end up assuming your houserules are universal, or try to force the other table to use them, which in turn may cause a lot of problems.
Look at the people here on ENWorld who have, in other threads, said that they have incorporated penalties to or caps on stats based on race or even sex, because they feel it's needed for one reason or another. Some of them have houseruled that into their game. Which is fine for
their game and
their players--but it also means that if they had a spot opened at their table, I know I for one would never want to join, and I would be upset if I didn't realize there was a penalty, made my character, and then discovered that my character got nerfed because of "realism." And I know that there are other posters here who feel the same thing. And some of
their players may refuse to play at a table that
doesn't have stat penalties, because it's too "unrealistic" for them.