Interesting perspective.

I’d add:

- “Hard problems” are often good game mechanics. Think traveling salesman or bin packing

- There are player archetypes. They each want different experiences. The collector vs the masterer.

- Emotion has to fit somewhere in the picture. It’s not just paint on top of mechanics. More likely the reverse is true. “Fun” isn’t an emotion.

- On distributions, too much randomness quickly becomes boring. Too little can be bland. It’s like a spice. How much is called for will vary by dish.