power creep in starting ability scores

[diplomancer]

Because not everyone is a power mad ******* only held back by the rules.

I'm my groups resident optimizer/minmaxer and if given that option I'd just go with 18/16/14/12/10/10 unless I was playing something like a monk that really needs multiple ability scores, in which case I'd go with something like 16/16/16/14/12/10.

Because not everyone wants to play as Superman. Sometimes make-believe is more fun when you impose your own limitations.

And I suppose another answer would be "because they'd be embarrassed to do it".