That seems like just a difference in campaign styles. Paranoia is designed for that sort of play, isn't it? My RPG group that has played for 15+ years has only

That seems like just a difference in campaign styles. Paranoia is designed for that sort of play, isn't it? My RPG group that has played for 15+ years has only played D&D a couple times, and only in the past 5 years, but the style in terms of attachment to long-lived and growing characters isn't any different from our previous campaigns (Shadowrun, Starfinder, homebrew Fallout, probably some others I'm forgetting). Just an odd criticism to hang on D&D specifically. Half-agreed with the bookshelf argument, though you can certainly get by with just the open SRD rules - most of the book content is just adding more and more options you can pilfer without having to homebrew it all.