Polearm Master in hardcover adventures - should the DM add magical polearms?

[Tanarii]

Can (mostly) confirm--I think in 5+ years (something like 12 groups, mostly new players), exactly 2(? maybe just 1, brain is not braining currently) chose polearms. And that's partially due to a mini with a polearm, not because they particularly wanted to use one.

Yeah, in a no feat campaign, the incidents of polearm characters was comparatively low. Greatsword and Greataxe characters were still somewhat common, but nowhere near as common as in a feat campaign.

Because PAM and GWM are so OP, they significantly skew the results when I was playing in AL. The frequency of polearm users, and now spear and shield users, is almost exclusively because of mechanical advantage.

That's fine, but it needs to be recognized.