all this stems p much entirely from a desire to CONTROL
id love people putting new species out into the world and letting others play with em but they can never just specify what makes em unique and then go, let the work speak for itself. they have to personally be there to control everything that comes out of their creation
we all know what dragons or unicorns are even tho they dont exist, we all know what makes em... themselves... and we all know how to design one. we have the rules, and we can choose to follow or break them at will, and thats what art is all about. theres a lot of fun in taking a different spin on something while STILL keeping it recognizable, or otherwise if they fail to do so you can just go 'lol nah that aint a dragon i dont see it', you dont come at them saying they cant call it that or whooping their ass for giving it feathers or hooves or a schlong thats slightly below average....
its also this desire for control that actually makes em fucking boring because even if the artist comes up with one amazing design- they cant just make it a character that exists in and of itself, they have to have it belong to a species because everything needs to be explainable and managable, and they then gotta limit it and force everyone 'onto the same playing field'. no one can have TOO much fun
it feels like its less of a 'here ya go kids, i made a toy for yall, have fun!', and more of a game for the creator themselves to put limitations on things and wrangle a buncha deviantards
i wanna see more unique species where people are allowed to go wild and i guarantee ya those are gonna turn our the best