So it feels sort of like The Crayonster is arguing against a straw-man version of RPGs that doesn't really represent a majority sampling of the games played.
I always figured that most people think of orcs as basically green-skinned humans and they're used as mooks more often than humans in order to emphasize that this is a fantasy setting. Also, I guess orcs are just cooler than humans or something? According to google, outside of Tolkien movies the fantasy artists generally seem to depict orcs as supermodels.
Whenever people went into detail on orcish culture, it was typically the official books like D&D and Pathfinder that went out of their way to paint orcs as being all evil all the time. All the fan-made cultures I remember reading simply treated them like humans, capable of both good and evil. Probably because writing evil cultures gets boring? IDK.
I see the SJW talking point that depicting orcs (or any fictional race) as inherently evil will somehow promote racist attitudes, but I don't see any evidence for that. In fact, I see far more evidence that as people mature they will reject the standard depiction of evil orcs as shallow and unrealistic.
I never really internalized that orcs were inherently evil. I grew up playing
Warcraft 3.
Sure, orcs work fine as evil mooks for a generic evil overlord. But real life is complicated. Killing mooks is cathartic, but it doesn't satisfy the more complex tastes of the human mind.
Whenever I see people writing more morally agent orcs, the justification is always that alignment is unrealistic and not that writing evil cultures promotes racist thinking.
I'm sorry if I come across as an evil SJW who wants to take away your fun. I'm sorry for offending you and I will try to be more conscientious in the future.