also, I have a hard time understanding how something could be a failure to deliver if it was never in scope to begin with. Honda don’t fail to deliver LCD screens in the back of my Accord because they never had that in their initial plans anyway, no matter how much I would have liked them.
How about if Honda was redesigning the new Accord from the ground up and said "We don't want to spend too much time on the stereo because not everyone listens to music while they drive, but we are going to add the stereo in (along with the other popular missing options) after we get the new streamlined basic Accord out to the general public?"
Then the new Accord sold like hotcakes and EVERYONE was in in love with it. They LOVE the simplicity of a streamlined simple to drive Accord without confusing buttons and displays they are never going to use. You love it too, but you want your stereo option. So you patiently wait because the stereo will make the new Accord even better. Soon it become apparent that the release of new features to add to your Accord is going to be slow, so you figure you might have to wait awhile.
Over the next 5 years Honda works on tons of new features, but never that stereo that you were hoping for. Eventually they send you a boombox you can put in your trunk to sort of hear music, but its not really the same. "I guess some music is better than none", you tell yourself, but you realize you aren't happy with the boombox in the trunk and its really NOT a stereo.
Then a designer for Honda makes a post on social media. It's rather cryptic (and hasn't been clarified) but it could be construed as saying "You know what....stereos were never really all that popular, so chances are the boombox in the trunk is the best we are going to give you.
Or maybe they don't even give you a boombox for your trunk and they just never mention stereos again.
So you go online to complain that you really wanted a stereo and not this boombox because it was implied that it was coming when they were designing the new Streamlined Accord. To this you get endless variations of the same three replies.
1. I love stereos too! I wish I had something better than a boombox in the trunk too and I think Honda should release more missing gadgets and less paint options.
2. Streamlined Accords are selling like hotcakes. Obviously Accords don't need stereos because they sell just fine without them and making one now would pretty much bankrupt Honda.
3. If you want a stereo now you can get one from Alibaba. It's not made by Honda, may or may not have been tested to work well in a Streamlined Accord, and nobody else is going to be familiar with it if you have a question, but its there and just as good as an official one.
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The #1 (by far) most distinct takeaway I had from when the Next playtest was morphing into the 5e game was the idea.....that was explicitly used as a selling point for 5e....that the PHB was going to smooth out the game and make it simple for the masses to pick up so that the game could gain traction. This obviously happened. THEN
(and this is the important part) they would add back in the things removed in the streamlining as optional "modules" that you could plug into your game to make it work the way you want. That way people could play the game they wanted by just using the streamlined basic game or the extra bits they wanted to add to their campaign.
It is now 5 years later and very clearly this design principle has not happened. If that's what WotC wants to to do because they want to rake in the dollars...I can't fault them for that decision. I would probably do the same thing. The fact remains, however, that the goal as mentioned 5 years ago seems to be unmet and perhaps forgotten if "It doesn't sell well so we aren't going to devote time to it." is a determining factor in what gets greenlit.
