The fact that I do need "crutches", as you put it, means that the more freeform roleplay that you and others are capable of leaves me feeling like I'm playing half a character. I am whipped along by people saying, "We don't need that", "haven't got time for that", or "can't have that because it impinges on this", and am told to put together a character from absolutely no information other than its stats. You can do this. Others can do this. I'm not good enough to. I need those crutches, or I don't have any fun. The heavily enforced vagueness of TL depresses me on a regular basis.

I never said that people are bad roleplayers because they didn't write down their character history. I said I didn't like people playing characters and not bothering to come up with any whatsoever. How can you put yourself in your characters shoes if you don't know who they are? How can you instinctively respond to a situation as your character, rather than you playing your character, when you don't know anything about them? You see now why my normal monster roles that I haven't had time to think about are frighteningly generic and two-dimensional to the point of being difficult to roleplay with. I can't think that fast.

In most other situations, people who devote more time and effort to a project get more out of it than those who don't or can't. In larp, I am passively penalised instead. I would apologise for being keen, but I can't bring myself to. I'm not in the least bit sorry I put as much time into it as I do.