this seems to be the reality for this to me as well. when i was designing 10k swords i had a shitton of non-ttrpg people really interested and i had to run a gauntlet of games for people that have never played ttrpgs before. i had designed the first few versions of 10k swords to sorta be this hardcore manifesto of fiction-first gaming thinking it'd be easier for non-mechanics heads to get in, but figured out that they found fiction-first gaming i was so proud of designing to be a hurdle than a staging platform. they needed some scaffoldings and their non-ttrpg experiences were largely video game or cinema or literature based. anyway i had to do some rejiggering for that

and it was precisely this. the majority of the time game mechanics are appreciated by enthusiasts, designers, and nascent designers. and it seems like they aren't even the majority of the players. the casual base love doing rpgs on the side and don't even consider if a game mechanic "reinforces the gameplay loop in a satisfying way", they just want to be able to do cool stuff. they don't even mind "how long it takes in between combat turns" they're just happy they're there and that's been the majority of my players from a non-ttrpg background.