You don’t have to tell me that, I have a 12 year old.

Yet often times as a father I see that guidance is best achieved by reasoning, not compulsion. Compulsion breeds long term resistance and aversion, which can damage relationships with certain topics and activities way more than whatever short term benefit was achieved by it.

Taken literally, you're leaping from arguing kids' whims are sub-optimal to saying they're an absolute minimum in terms of long-term beneficial behavioral outcomes.

Kids jumping off bridges is probably worse than them eating ice cream cones or whatever.