Let's Get Real - the DM's responsibility is balance

[PhoenixPhyre]

Exactly, the game is purchased/chosen to be fun, and if the game fails to provide the framework it aims or claims to, it is, in fact, failing to some extent. We could just as easily write:

But the game is bad at that, and the DM therefore has to go out of their way or put extra work into what are failings of the base game. The non-combat pillars are... uh... well, let's just say they make CR and adventuring day expectations seem great! :P

I disagree. 5e has "some assembly required" and "heavy DM involvement" all over the rules. And what counts as a fix for some people (ie the "social rules" I've seen bandied about here on these forums) would be much worse than the disease (whose existence is also a matter of contention and opinion) for many people (myself included). So there isn't a possible "fix that works for everyone". Which means that the system isn't broken here; we just disagree on what it should do. Which is totally fine. But we should be honest about the fact that we're discussing matters of taste and opinion, not objective truth.

The 5e base rules, by and large, do exactly what they promise. It's just that what they promise isn't what some people want. And then they conflate "not what I want" with "is bad".