Devotion to the OSR

Why do Osr players seem so devout to their genre?

My hunch is the life style osr players demand something the osr offers. That the simplicity of osr games require less prep for the referee and there are less rules to break up the flow of gameplay.

The OSR is the "dad game" genre of the table top role playing space. It's the last bastion table top role playing games can offer them before life strips them of the joy entirely.

So what makes the OSR dad game rather than D&D 5e or Pathfinder? I would argue that it's where the skill expression comes from. With mainstream role playing games, the skill expression comes from system mastery. With Osr systems, the expression comes from problem solving involving resources the player has.

A clear example of this is navigating around a trap. In a mainstream system the player needs to "press" the right button on their character sheet to circumnavigate the trap. In an OSR title, the player needs to figure out how to neutralize the trap using items/materials at their disposal.

Because the problem solving in a OSR system is not based on the mechanics of the game, the play style becomes system agnostic and allows players to experience a large array of game with no to minimal learning. Rather than switching from D&D 5e to Pathfinder is a very dramatic shift.

This is also why the same niche player base can support so many so in their side of the hobby. The amount of time needed to learn the new product is very small. Especially when there is a major trend to make rules light systems in the OSR niche.

So the devotion to the subgenre is ultimately a combination of looking for a product that suites their lifestyle and doesn't lock them down into a single ecosystem.