The part where you seem to think that's an effective argument.
No one has any provided any counter to the key thrust of the argument yet, they just ignore it and hope no one notices.
Decisions like this don't exist in a vacuum. They have a real impact on the gaming experience for everyone involved. From your point of view, you see it as affecting your character. I see it as affecting the entire race.
A default placement means nothing when most players will shuffle their stats to the most mechanically beneficial spot. This mentality quickly spreads throughout the setting. Halflings are suddenly as strong as Half-orcs. The delineation between the races is watered down.
You think that Halflings shuffling from DEX to STR is a problem, but players tossing the race they would prefer to play as to the side for the sake of a race with more mechanically beneficial race ASI's is fine? ...Why do you think that moving the spots the +2/+1 go is worse than forcing players to not play the race and class combination they're interested in playing?
You say floating ASI's waters the delineation between the races as a whole. But having most races pigeonholed into being optimized for certain classes has the effect of making those races more generic internally to that race and at the same time it limits the space for a class to certain races.
I still don't see any explanation in there about how floating ASI's you can leave at the defaults hurts your play experience. You don't have to use them in your playthroughs. Who cares if Jim - in his playthrough separate from yours - wants to make Gumbo the Strongest Halfling in the world? How does that hurt you, who are leaving your scores where they are by default?
There's something to be said for functioning within boundaries. Again, as I mentioned earlier, catering to the crowd that wants their cake even after they've eaten it leads to players eventually saying, "You can't hit me because I have a force field."
Boundaries still exist. Floating ASI's does not magically change the game into Calvinball. Pretending that floating ASI's turns the entire rule set into "I HAVE A FORCEFIELD YOU DIDN'T HIT ME" is a painfully, painfully bad strawman.
It's a spoiled mentality that lessens the game for everyone by tainting the racial differences. And, as another poster mentioned, that suddenly negates the balance of the other racial differences, things like skills, armor proficiencies, and darkvision.
In short, it's just a narrow-sighted bad idea someone had because they wanted better stats.
Really? You're the one saying "You guys way over there, stop having fun in a different way than I prefer!" And you're calling "I want to play the race and class combination I want in my own game" as the spoiled mentality?
1. As I stated previously, +5% matters in terms of average effectiveness more the lower the chance is (to a point of hoping for 20). If you are trying to hit an enemy with high AC and need a roll of 17-20, that +1 is massive in terms of DPR or duration of an effect. But in those cases it is ALWAYS better to look for another option other than rolling those odds.
No character is going to be strong in every situation. There are always going to be cases where different characters are better or weaker against certain foes. But the difference of missing out on a +1 is that they're going to be weaker against foes they're expected to be good against for a significant amount of time.
Oh, and the idea that you can choose a better option - in a game with dice rolls for everything - doesn't track. That Halfling Wizard with 15 INT, their attack rolls and spell DC for saving throws are both going to be equally worse than a human wizard with 16 INT. It still comes down to a roll of a die either way.
Do you really need floating stat points to make a nerdy barbarian dwarf? Just put as many point into intelligence as possible. Why the need to give yourself even more? Can you roleplay better with it? Half-orc with 10 strength will be considered weak, do you really need 8 for your character fantasy?
I find hard to believe that anyone who considers a role play a big factor needs floating stat point to create a unique character.
I sure do need that 8 in strength if, say my character fantasy is for example, a half-orc who was left on the doorstep of a monastery and raised as a monk who needs a +2 DEX much more than +2 STR. Especially because Monks are generally considered underpowered as it is.
If the stats meant absolutely nothing for success or failure, then that would be the case where floating stat points would not making a difference in role-playing. But the stats do mean things.
So on one hand whatever the impact is, big or small, it doesn't matter because it still prevents you from playing a race-class combination you want. So you need to float those racial stat points.
But on the other hand the racial abilities don't matter, because whatever the impact, they have you still will play a race-class combination you want.
I find those two a little bit contradictory.
Not that contradictory. The value of the ASI is going to have the bigger impact. Other racial abilities can indeed be a selling point for a race-class combination, but a good ASI is always going to be king. Why do you think JandK scoffs at the idea of a Halfling as strong as a Half-Orc? Because the default Half-Orc comes with +2 STR and the default Halfling doesn't.
I asked you in return if allowing free points at character creation wouldn't be a solution. Whatever answer you would give to that question is the same answer I would give to yours. How is your fun impacted by someone wanting to roll until he gets al 18s or edits that in?
If someone finds fun in playing a character with +5 to everything who are you to tell them you shouldn't have fun like that.
My fun is not impacted by that, because it is not my game. A person can feel free to edit their character stuff in their own game, because it is their own game. Just as my Stout Halfling Wizard having +2 INT/+1 CON in my own game should not hurt your experience.
But the severity of it's impact doesn't matter (see above) as long as you can't prove that it undeniably ruins your personal fun, right?
My point was that there's a difference between +2/+1 and +4/+4/+4/+4/+4/+4, and pretending that wanting a floating +2/+1 is the same as wanting +4/+4/+4/+4/+4/+4 was false.
I also see little point in continuing to go in circles on this.
