[prof1515]

The RPIs were never that large to begin with but the increase in their popularity in the last decade really is on account of exactly what you said, the dumbing down and lowering of standards.

"Playability" used to be a catch-phrase I despised (and still do) because it was used to justify all sorts of things in the name of broadening appeal. My position has always been that it's better to retain one good player than to gain ten poor ones at their expense. Sadly that position seems to have been increasingly the minority viewpoint.