Yes, this is why the system is bad. It fails to actually support the intended scope of the game. The fact that the setting material so heavily emphasizes geopolitics rather than punching out bosses is, in fact, substantial support for the idea. The fact that the game is supposed to explicitly repudiate the murderhobo "armies are scenery, wandering bands of adventurers solve things by beating up big bads" kind of classical fantasy RPG playstyle is substantial support for the idea. The statements of the developers about political games and how they want Solars to be emperors and kingmakers is support for the idea.
I'm not pulling this interpretation of Exalted from the aether. I'm pulling it from the kinds of fluff they emphasize, and then looking at the mechanics, and saying that the mechanics don't serve the written intent. Your counterargument is assuming that the mechanics are the things that actually inform people what the game is about and are showing people what the setting is really about... when that's basically never been a thing in White Wolf outside of Borgstromancy, which the Exalted devs have rejected.
When it's called "Vanilla Exalted" and it says that there's "No Change" in the focus, I'm fairly sure it means 'default.' Even if we, arguendo, assume your statement is true, this implies that the most evocative and immediately obvious way to run an Exalted game is one which is poorly supported by the mechanics. Which is a problem. And is, in fact, not substantially weakening my argument. "The style most people will think of first and probably end up playing first is not mechanically supported" isn't any weaker an argument than "Exalted fails to emphasize its core game style."
Huh. I've got to admit, I never really saw the whole geopolitics angle as the primary intended form of Exalted. That it was there and was a thing you could do was pretty sweet, but I always read the setting as encouraging the 'wandering heroes' archetype.
The Wyld Hunt always felt like an incentive to keep moving and keep your head down. You could help people out and perform great deeds of heroism that the locals will speak of for generations, but having done that the best course of action is to leave. Staying in one place gives the Wyld Hunt a stationary target they can aim for and properly prepare to face, and exposes a lot of people that you might very well care about to collateral damage.
And hey, maybe you manage to survive or even defeat the Wyld Hunt when it comes for you. Well, that's grand, but now you've got the Realm's
attention. The next Hunt they send will be larger and better equipped, and if that doesn't work they scale up to legions and then armies and then outright super weapons, partly because you're an Anathema and partly because letting someone defy them and live sends the wrong message to the other dozen or so nearby countries they're exploiting.
3e seems to be supporting this viewpoint as well. The section on the Wyld Hunt talks about them being disorganized and slow right now, but explicitly says they will not stay that way. It talks about the Immaculate Philosophy being a widely accepted ideology and often a force for good in the face of disaster and divine oppression. It describes dozens of unique and fascinating settings in just enough detail to serve as inspiration and give you the general idea of them, without going into the full details necessary to run an entire game set in one of them. It stresses the power of the Dragon-Blooded and the guerrila warfare of the Lunar Exalted, introducing Sidereals in the opening fiction as the sort of people who might come and try to outright
assassinate you.
The combat, the social influence, even the crafting systems are all set up to keep the focus on individual people and what they care about. Artifacts are all highly personalized with unique abilities. Sorcery can be attained any number of different ways, with power gathering rituals and control spells providing individual identity to a common archetype. And, yes, the high-end social management systems are bare bones and the battle group system is designed to model one hero facing off against a hundred ninja rather than two armies clashing over the river valley.
In essence, while you can make the point that 2e had a larger geopolitical element, 3e seems to be aiming for a much smaller and more personalized stories, where more weight is given to individuals and what they believe than grand societal trends.
And you know what? I'm OK with that. Indeed, I actually really like it.
