Why the desire for low magic?

[Batcathat]

The problem is that there are some characters that aren't magic. In a fantasy setting, magic is just a part of the world. It doesn't make any more sense to talk about a "non-magic" character in a high magic setting than it does to talk about a character who doesn't use gravity or the weak nuclear force in the real world. Which, of course, explains why some people want low-magic settings. Some people would like to play Conan or Aragorn, and for that to be a reasonable character, you have to cap the amount of magic people are allowed to have.

I'm not sure the comparison holds up. Magic may indeed be part of the fundamental forces of a fantasy setting but that doesn't mean everyone could or should utilize it. Most people in the real world can't manipulate nuclear reactions without some fairly extensive training, after all.

The easy fix is to just do what the rest of the genre does and give everyone in high-magic settings some kind of magic. There's no reason that there have to be some characters who get powers that let them solve high-magic challenges and other characters who don't. Look at any high-magic series, be it Malazan, or A Practical Guide to Evil, or The Stormlight Archive. You see the same pattern: everybody gets magic. It doesn't matter if you're a dedicated mage (like the Warlock or Quick Ben), or a warrior (like Kaladin or Anomander Rake), or even a nominal non-combatant (like Shallan or the Dread Empress). If you're supposed to be a major player, you get powers that let you solve the problems you're faced with.

Yes, that is one potential solution to the issue, but one that only enforces the paradigm of "magic can do anything" that not all people enjoy (no, not even in a high magic setting).