Gretchen S. Reading your comments, I remember a tidbit I read somewhere. Some designers make games around a weakness in their GM style. Vincent Baker said he made ‘dogs in the vineyard’ to help teach him how to make NPCs stand their ground.

This of course is not a universal approach to design, but it might explain the different emphasis. If you have never struggled with setting up premises then you might not think to hardcode it into your rules.

I think also if you’re in the habit from jumping from system to system, its understandable to be looking for the best premise to get things moving at the table fast. Though not all premises cut down on prep time. I imagine that TOR while having a good premise, and supplements to help, still took some work to bring to the table. Or maybe not idk.