Let's address this head on. In your first reply, include your age, general yearly income, and job - as my hypothesis is that this is mainly a function of that.
I'll start: 38, $75k, 40 hours a week taking claims for Social Security. I'm also working on getting a PhD in political ideology.
[Second Edit] Ya know what, screw it. If nobody's gonna edit the OP then the thread is still personal. People shouldn't be judged by their income, but bragging about making under $80k when pushing 40 is cringe, and bragging about having a brainless gov't job like SS claims processing is double cringe. Putting that forward as a qualifier for discussing video games brings it up to an impressive triple cringe. Examine your life choices.
Anyhow, it's a given that tightening balance is a good thing in most game genres, including turn-based RPGs. Save scumming to get a good story experience (including not letting a child get straight murdered on your watch) and having to make multiple checks in a row towards a binary outcome are just frustrating game design problems that can and should be fixed. Likewise, combat should be balanced to the point that it can be done on high difficulties and be satisfyingly difficult while still having multiple approaches. 5E does a better job of that than previous DnD editions, but barrel spam and similar things water it down. Patches for this game have been moving in the right direction but I would still like to see it tuned a bit more.
