keyword being in dnd.
you fall asleep at the wheel for a split second and wrap your car around a tree. a) significant because it's life or death and b) small things can have a big impact.
point being even in a system like dnd where you have the math and rules "to back you up" if your GM wants to fuck with you (why you play in such a group is another topic tho), but still doesn't give you full protection if the wants to, same way they don't prevent a player to abuse them "because the rules state...".
if you have a good GM - or rather good group where he doesn't have to be that good in the first place - that won't happen (but then can be argued he shouldn't fudge in the player's favor either), neither won't wonky math lead to "you make a sandwich and your dick explodes" because the goal isn't to make the player sated but dickless; it can still be interesting character development tho, if that's what you're after, same reason some people play with critical fumbles in a d20 system etc.
TLDR: every system depends on the group and even ptba can probably work in the right one.
I've actually played several PbtA games with a good group, and I agree. Good players and a good GM are much more important than the rule system in detemining fun, and there's many systems much worse than PbtA.
That said, it is a clunky enough system that it's defects were noticeable. In particular, like a lot of hipster rule systems, it's not so much "rules light" as "rules very specific." Like, in a normal RPG - Call of Cthulhu, let's say - if the GM forgets a rule, it doesn't matter that much. He can improvise something, kludge something together, it'll be fine. "Uh, shit, how does automatic fire work? Fuck it. You get a 20% bonus on your Firearms role, and can add an extra die to your damage. Sounds good? All right." Any themes the GM wants to get across are embedded in the scenarios he constructs, and any characterizations the players want to develop are embedded in the choices their PCs make. Not in the rules, which are just a framework on which to hang the PCs' adventure, and are easily fiddled with.
But in PbtA games, and a lot of other hipster games, the whole philosophy is the other way around. The rules are carefully designed and balanced to emphasize certain themes and plot characteristics, and to force PCs into certain archetypes. And so fiddling with them changes your plot, your themes, and the incentive structures that
are the PCs' personalities. It's the difference between an older car where a set of wrenches, some screwdrivers, and some wd-40 will allow you to fix almost anything wrong with it, and a modern car that requires proprietary computer hardware to even start.
There's something to be said for these kinds of hipster systems: ran and played as intended, the way the rules and themes smoothly mesh together can make for a story that is wonderfully immersive. But this requires the system be designed very thoughtfully (which most PbtA games are not) and that it be played with scrupulous attention to the rules-as-written. And it comes with tremendous restrictions to the freedom of both the GM and the PCs.
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