Good thinking :)

To be clear, grub itself doesn’t mount your root partition. Grub provides the root partition device path or id to the kernel via kernel command line. Then kernel mounts the root partition early in its boot sequence with a limited set of options (typically read only).

Logically, the root partition should be mountable without fstab because otherwise it would be a chicken and egg problem :)

Usually once the userspace starts, an init script will remount the root partition with its normal options from fstab.

(It’s a bit more complicated if initramfs is involved, but the principle is the same).

“The current quiet zeitgeist” is totally a EU thing. Whenever I played anything on NA, people are much more inclined to coordinate via voice there, so any game instantly feels much more like teamwork. You mentioned Helldivers 2, and I think that is a very good example how different it feels to play the same game as an actual team.

You also mentioned tank/healer combos in MMOs, but there is a lot more team play in many of them. Big raids in WoW require 20–40 players, where everyone needs to do not only their job, but also raid boss mechanics. Destiny 2 is also a good example.

Also, your life isn’t worthless, it costs 8 bmats.