There's a place for being self-centered in art-making. Ultimately, I make most of my personal art for myself, even if the stated purpose is to use it as a gaming aid. My players honestly don't mind if I'm sketching a map on a napkin during the game, so when I'm going to the trouble of creating something fantastic, it's only partly for their benefit.

We do talk a lot about verisimilitude around here because having a logical environment with realistic underpinnings helps facilitate the willing suspension of disbelief that fantasy gaming requires. It also makes things a little easier on the GM because when your fantasy world works like the real world, you don't have to stop and think as much about how an unexpected player action will affect things.

Now, given that we do spend a lot of time discussing how our maps should reflect real-world physics, ecology, and climatology, every once in a while there's a bit of push-back where people say, "Can't we just have a really fantastical fantasy world? Is that too much to ask?" A general thread like this one is an ideal place to have that conversation since it's usually not appropriate in a Work in Progress thread.