something that annoys me about responses to criticism of d&d is that imo people will give the game credit for things it did not do. "i have fun playing d&d" -- of course you do! you're meeting up to talk to your friends for several hours, that's inherently fun regardless of the activity. if i met up with five of my besties every week to dig holes in the desert we'd have a great time but that doesn't speak to the merits of digging holes in the desert. people will talk about cool shit their DM came up with singlehandedly (because d&d gives DMs absolutely no useful guidance or support) and act like that vindicates the game itself rather than their friend who designed a cool encounter/told a cool story
i agree with you but "digging holes in the desert" is the worst example you could have come up with because the good time you had with your friends is in that case directly because of the healing, friendship-building power of digging holes in the desert
i think digging holes in the desert is good but only if you homebrew it to digging trenches instead
