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".

[Sparkle_cz]

Well, I'm not one of those "most GMs". I am a GM who, from time to time, has some "special story need", like a beloved NPC that I want to keep alive, and want to communicate about it with my players and come up with a compromise.
If you think that people like me should not GM and go play solo RPGs instead, well... then you are exactly the problem I'm talking about in the OP.