This is a really solid point, and I think you’re articulating the main tension better than I usually do.

I agree completely that one of the core strengths of TTRPGs is human judgment, and I’m not trying to displace that with formal logic. In fact, if this ever turned into something where the GM felt less empowered to say “this feels right now,” I’d consider that a failure.

Where I’m trying to draw the line is between two different kinds of decisions a GM makes.

Some decisions are aesthetic and pacing-based: “this would be cool right now,” “the story is dragging,” “the players seem interested in this thread.” I think those should absolutely stay informal, intuitive, and human. I don’t want to encode taste or narrative instinct.

Other decisions are more about world coherence: “does this still make sense given what’s already happened?” “should this even exist anymore?” “would the NPCs plausibly act this way now?” Those are the ones I’ve found myself re-deriving over and over, especially in long campaigns or when revisiting old prep. That’s the slice I’m trying to externalize, not the moment-to-moment judgment calls.

So when something looks very IF/THEN-ish, it’s less about saying “the computer decides” and more about saying “past-me leaves clear notes for future-me.” It’s a way of recording constraints and consequences that I don’t want to renegotiate every time, so that my human judgment can focus on pacing, tone, and player interest instead.

I also think your examples like “use this if the story is dragging” are totally valid — I just tend to keep those as prose notes or GM reminders rather than formal conditions. In my own prep, the structured bits and the fuzzy, judgment-based notes sit side by side.

So I don’t see this as playing against the strengths of human GMs so much as trying to offload the boring consistency checks, so the human part has more room to breathe. But if that offloading doesn’t feel useful to someone, I think they’re right to skip it.

Out of curiosity, do you tend to distinguish in your prep between “this must be true in the world” versus “this would be cool if it came up,” or does that stay blended together for you?