Completely agree with this, people forget this is a video game and it needs adaptation.
This is basically a shallow platitude that gets parroted around at this point.
Both because the implied assumption that any adaptation should necessarily be transformative is demonstrably false and because even when some tweak is necessary, something "adapted" doesn't need to be completely flipped on its head to work properly.
The whole ship part is just a glorified tutorial. Intellect devourers are a prfect example of why it's great they homebewed it. You need mosters that fit the story the place you are in nothing wrong with homebrewing.
No, what you need is monsters that fit the role (and power level) you are planning for that specific encounter.
Making the wrong pick and then completely transforming your monster of choice to be more manageable is what piss poor DMs do.
It's not just stupid and inconsistent on several levels, it's also borderline patronizing toward any decent player. "Here's your epic adventure, we'll scale down whatever you want to beat so you can have bragging rights! Hey, do you guys want to curb-stomp a red dragon at level 1? I have one ready with just a couple of modification!.
