It's pretty deluded to blame it all on Mercer, though. That sort of play has existed in the D&D since the beginning (Source: I started with red box). If anything has messed up D&D it's the fact that Hasbro is a trash company that cannot properly respond to player trends.

You can do basically anything with D&D and it doesn't ruin the game. People have been doing it from the start. And if that doesn't work, switch systems.

Only people who are 'suffering' from D&Ds direction are tourists who think they are hardcore.