It probably means something like mothership as well, where the character sheet is designed such that it guides you on how to fill it without the need for a separate book.

But really I'm not sure I agree much with the article. I could be wrong but it seems to me that the audience is growing and therefore what the audience want is becoming more diverse.

My own very biased experience is I that I started playing dungeons and dragons, literally having no clue about this gigantic iceberg of other stuff with a 50+ year history behind it. Did that for a few years, through the pandemic etc.

Fast forward a bit, the idea of playing Combat rpgs now (so pathfinder, 5.5, whatever) interests me almost not at all. I want to tell stories and try out new personalities. I've now played a ton of Call of Cthulhu (which I'd argue is extremely rules light if you want it to be), Delta Green, Mork Borg, Vaesen and would have played dozens more if I had a more local group to play with.

Would love to play some Blades though... Weirdly a bit like Delta Green, you'd think it would be great for easier to organise one shots but actually you need a short campaign to get the most of it, I would say

I might be on the minority on all that, I don't know!