I think making stat adjustments generic does make races more generic, I don't think that's controversial. But again complaining about these things does lose something considering it's supposed to be malleable on our end, unilaterally.
If Halflings have different stat adjustments after a millennia of evolution in the Dark Sun, than the off-brand Hobbits of FR, than we shouldn't really need a book telling us it's ok. Though Halflings with +2 to strength still seems wrong to me.
Why did we need a book telling us how to do this? Maybe it's because someone coming to the table saying their gnome should have a 20 strength at level 1 would be considered a certain type of gaming otherwise (also no negative modifiers thank you), and those people are a big part of the market now.
D&D shouldn't be giving us fish but teaching us how to fish.
