I find it bizarre that someone would say that min-maxing is required to play DND. What kind of awful DM would allow a TPK a group of people having fun and roleplaying simply because they weren't min-maxing? Sure, dice are part of the game, but the point of the game is to have fun, and good DMs will constantly fudge rolls, or change stats to let their party have a more enjoyable experience. That level 1 wizard that technically gets focused by two goblins and is insta-gibbed? oops, that 20 roll is now a 12 and they barely survive.
It's a bit sad to hear of DND in such dry mechanical terms. It's supposed to be an RPG, not just a table top strategy game like 40k.
