I should perhaps have made clearer that the above (and now quoted below) was my moderator ruling on the topic, and in the first paragraphs I was merely summarising the argument that had been made in the hope of promoting mutual understanding, and neither endorsing it, objecting to it, nor seeking any further discussion on it.
My main points were (a) no more challenges to peoples' positions or preferences on this topic unless they've indicated they're up for that and it's conducted in a spirit of curiosity rather than criticism (I had already said what I personally think about introduction of new races earlier in the thread and have nothing more to add), and (b) let's not argue any further about what factors Larian are likely to think relevant or conclusive when deciding what new races to implement (as opposed to reasons for our own theories and preferences) given the debate on this point here is unconstructive.
I should also add, (c) let's recognise when we've made our preference and position clear and not continue to belabour it, even if others still disagree.
I believe the suggestion about immersion is that it wouldn't make sense to introduce exotic races just for PCs. If they're in the game at all then we should also see them represented among NPCs. Which seems a reasonable enough position to take in general, though there could be some races where it makes sense to think of Tav as the only local representative due to some special circumstances.
But then, either we see NPCs of "exotic" races around the world and so, for those who find their presence in Faerun implausible given their understanding of the lore, this could break their immersion. Or our PC is the only example of their race so players who choose not to play that race aren't bothered by it, but then we need character models and animation that will be used only for the PC which doesn't seem very efficient.
That seems clear enough, so I don't think there's any need to require folk to explain those points further.
Beyond that, people are perfectly entitled to prefer not to see races they consider implausible in the game. Just as others are perfectly entitled to want any race in it either as PCs, NPCs or both. As to which preference is most justified, I think we might be at the agree to disagree point as I'm not seeing the discussion moving forward constructively. Everyone is welcome to say what they prefer and why, but let's take care that we're doing that rather than challenging others' preferences. Unless it's clear they're up for that, and even then that we do it in a spirit of curiosity rather than criticism.
I'm also not seeing much value in speculating further about what Larian's cost/benefit analysis of including more non-PHB races might have been. We'll only find out the result of it when they tell us, which will hopefully be reasonably soon.
In the meantime, I'm perfectly happy to let us continue to speculate wildly about anything, but only if we're having fun doing it. This is starting to feel more like an argument, though, and let's not do that!
