A few pushbacks:
- A choice that everyone feels compelled to take is a red flag in the paradigm of D&D 'balance,' but it's not a universal bad thing; sometimes it's a deliberate false choice. Guidance isn't that, but this isn't a design principle that can exist in an intentless vacuum.
- D&D is famously balanced around combat, so "this is balanced only in combat" is not the gotcha he thinks it is. Still a problem, but not some massive deviation from the overall ecosystem.
- And, well. Same deal with "no narrative presence." Isn't the big draw of 5e that the table gets to add whatever the sy…