Conan the Barbarian is the key thing people point to as calling the class that. But day to day speech of "Barbaric" or "Barbarian" and phrases like "Barbarians at the Gates" is largely insulting. Even if the use of the word has started to become less in recent decades, it is still actively used as that in things like political speeches and the like. And forgive me if I feel the existence of certain fiction does not outweigh the actual use of the word in real life.
Also, it's just conceptually limiting to be honest.
There's no reason you can't have a person from a more advanced culture who lives with all the available amenities and comforts and perhaps even coming from a comfortable, noble lifestyle who has that same skill set and approach to things. And again, yeah, you can fluff it that way already, but it is very irritating that all the imagery of the class bends toward the 18th / 19th century concept of the Noble Savage which is a lot about "oh look how unspoiled these people are by civilization and how close to nature they are, blah blah... and was used for literal centuries as a way to condescend to people"
Howard almost certainly was reacting to things he'd heard in his life, as he apparently experienced a lot of anti-Irish prejudice and it basically comes across as "you call me a barbarian, fine then."
But everything that falls under that word can be easily used with the much more neutral "Outlander" background and the skill set referred to as "Warrior" encouraging a much broader spectrums of backgrounds and upbringings for people in the class.
For example, a knight templar-inspired Warrior who summons guardian angels to empower him as a variant of the Totem warrior... which, btw, is a word drawn from an actual living religion currently being practiced.
You still didn't answer my question.
Do you KNOW that the tropes you're talking about are driving away prospective players, or are you just saying that because you heard it said by others?
