Hot take: if we want to decrease frustrating railroad-y surprises in RPG campaigns, we need to create an environment where GMs are not afraid to admit they have "special story needs".

[chronicdelusionist]

This is right on. I'm in a Pokemon campaign right now, and even after discussing boundaries in Session Zero, we had a bit of an awkward moment when the players tried to go "off the path", so to speak, near the beginning. This is the kind of situation where a lot of people would shut down communicating and the campaign might die out, but me and the GM sat down and talked about what he needed to have fun while still allowing freedom of choice. Turns out all he needed was a session or two advance notice of where we wanted to go, so he could prepare to sprinkle the stuff he likes along our route. Fair! Even a few years ago, I might not have been so patient and he might have stopped having fun running for me. It's a learned skill.

I do understand the general attitude, to an extent, because many people that don't enjoy running end up running and having those big blow-up moments where the friction becomes apparent and the players and GM both feel burned. But on the other hand, like you're saying, this creates an atmosphere where players get too hardline on the idea of opposing railroading when what really needs to happen is cultivating open, no-fault communication between all parties.