There was derision in the phrase "intangible, undefinable, nebulous quality". Because it doesn't really exist. Fun exists in many forms.
And I never said fun didn't count. I said people find fun in different ways and trying to police how other people have fun is a bad look. So please, if you want to argue against me. Do it against what I actually said and not just what you wish I said.
> There's apparently some intangible, undefinable, nebulous quality being lost.
Yes, it's called "fun". It's using the game as a platform for creativity and expression, not merely optimization for a fixed arbitrary set of rules.
Saying that this doesn't count is you saying "you're having fun wrong".
It's also why professional sports evolve rules to stop camping strategies like scoring 1 pt and then sitting on the ball/puck unitl the clock runs out.