Greetings!
Yeah, the whole "+2 and +1" to whatever racial stats you want, rearrange as desired, is just total BS and I think when you draw back and really think about different, distinctive *races*--that doing such a policy is just fucking bland and weak. WTF? I can understand to a point saying, "All Gnomes have whatever stats, rearrange as you desire" can be attractive, but when you then apply the same precise attributes to every race, it just seems to make them all so bland and colourless to my way of thinking. Halflings are just as strong as Half Ogres? Half Ogres are just as swift and agile as Halflings? Same thing goes for Elves, and a dozen other races. The entire rationale and motivation behind such a rule as presented by WOTC is so much nonsense.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
You could...like NOT use them? I have Tasha's Cauldron and I don't allow that. Thing is, more options and variants aren't BAD, per-se, but not one is being forced to use them all the time. Same with no more elven-focused Bladesingers. In my Realms game, they're still only allowed to be Elves and grudgingly half-elves.
It's the motivations that matter to me. They are motivated by things other than what makes the best game.
The motivations are:
1) not everyone uses the same settings or even uses the same concepts for the rules to be placed. Books like
TCoE 'gives' (and I use that terms in a sense of - this is OK - on paper) the DM free-reign in doing whatever they want with their setting.
2) 5e, like the past three editions that can before it (2E Skills and Powers, 3/3.5/PF, and 4E) are heavily player-centric in terms of books application and usage. They are created for Players to comb through and find fun things to do. With that said, supplements like Tasha's gives players even more room to be creative with the rules for their enjoyment, with the creator's assumption that the DM is fine with using those rules or allowing those options.
Here's the thing that will
always confuse me about this issue: Where are the DMs with backbones? These must be a fabled people or enmeshed with their older versions as to not even bother looking at later stuff. That has to be the only explanation, otherwise these new products would be looked at and either assimilated into the group's campaigns OR just thoroughly ignored and banned. Its like some people rested HARD on the Core assumptions of nearly non-existent rare/exotic races and Lawful-Good only paladins being written into the rules. Yet, when those restrictions were removed they legitimately had zero answer for why these were prevalent in their own games - "because the book says so..." - I guess was good enough.
What makes the "best" game is the story and concept the DM/GM creates that their players have fun running though. More options won't hamper that in anyway SO LONG as the DM has reasons for those options not being prevalent. It's not exactly a difficult concept to run with either.