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Hot take: Strongest creatures in the setting shouldn't just be clowned by PCs with no resistance.
(ttrpg.network)
Inspired by frustrating conversation I had. For those curious, that was the statblock of Caine, father of the vampires.
I feel that this is really 5e and 4e specific. 3.5 is kinda borderline and in my experience 2e and older definitely do feature things that are effectively "if you go in there you die, lmao" types of obstacles and trend more towards a sort of survival-horror tone, where surviving is in itself an accomplishment.
BECMI ends with Immortals, so the concept of playing extremely powerful characters has always been around. While I'd imagine the vast majority never played with those rules, the same is true for modern D&D. A vanishingly small number of games actually make it to level 20.