Re: Monopoly, I don’t think this was the original one, but this Defense of Monopoly has been (wait for the stupid joke) living in my mind rent-free for years.
It posits that Monopoly may not be an amazing game, but it stops being a terrible game when you play with rules as written instead of playing with the house rules which you were taught. This is specifically for auctions, free parking, landing on Go, etc. The author also suggests a different end condition by ending the game when the first player goes bankrupt. I like this a lot!
It’s also interesting to note that modern “kids” branded Monopoly games (e.g. Space Monopoly, etc that are prevalent in my family) hammer home playing rules as written in their own rules multiple times. It’s almost like they say “Hey, ignore what your boomer dad is telling you about putting taxes on Free Parking and tell your dad to just play rules as written”.
