In my experience when minmaxers have meaningful impact on the setting, they can grow bored of minmaxing! Minmaxing is sometimes a symptom of someone feeling (perhaps subconsciously) that they only way they can achieve anything meaningful in the setting is by being in a position to bludgeon the GM with a rulebook.
Not all minmaxing, for sure. Sometimes it's just fun to "solve" the puzzle.
But some minmaxing, definitely.
There's no question that throwing parts of the world--big or small--into your players hands requires trusting them. If you don't trust your players with the playground you'll…