Why do so many people who claim they want to play “D&D” then proceed to work to change it into some other game, frequently one that already exists?
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wmusswtwbf 
Hey O.G. I had no idea you had a blog! Great to see it.
Hope you are feeling better BTW.
As to your question, thats easy. D&D has name recognition and a good “installed user base” modding it or changing the rules a bit is much easier than getting people to play whatever other game you had in mind.
Also at least in my day( started with Holmes and AD&D) having house rules, many house rules and rulings was standard operating procedure for a DM.
As there was an expectation the game was modified to taste so extensive house ruling was no big deal and as most of the modified games were still pretty recognizable and easy to learn (mostly) why not modify?
True, but at some point you’d be better off with another game that already does that. I’ve seen a lot of discussion on changes that when the dust settled would basically turn D&D into Runequest. Runequest is a fine game, but if you want Runequest, then why not play Runequest?
I will note that I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered more than a small handful of players who refused to play a certain system or other, in 42 years.
You’ve had better luck than I . Back in the day, when I was about the age give or take a year when you were gaming with Gary and my gaming circle of regular players was well over a dozen without trying and maybe twice that with effort, we often ran into refusenik players. It wasn’t even possible to mix and match from play groups.
Often as not it was “Won’t play Harn (or tried it didn’t like it) hates “rulemaster” not into GURPS (1e in the 80’s) and so on. More often than not it was “D&D” or nothing .Since you mention it Runequest was close but it didn’t click .
This might be gaming generation related though. You started at before Gen 0 (Gen O started with OD&D) and I with Gen 1 (Holmes) and the player based changed a bit in those years.
Lastly you might be amused to know that my rather younger play group (early 20’s making me the OG) has institutionalized “wmusswtwbf” though we call it Robot Chicken Night
Every 4 sessions or so we make something up and heck half the time we barely used rules or just “uh lets use a d12 this time” It works most of the time and is very rarely not fun which I suppose is doing it right
Anyway I look forward to reading your memoir,it should be fascinating.