The idea that the rules set needs to mention social encounters as a pillar of play is a modern gaming application of gaming to an older system.

AD&D had plenty of social encounters they were just considered part of playing the game and we didn’t need rules to tell us how to adjudicate those.

I honestly think that 5e is overly dependent on rules and its focus on their application through several types of checks throughout the game instead of focusing on telling a good story.

I think this article is very well written but, to me, the design of the game centered around a 6-8 encounter adventuring day is a debilitating choice. Recognizing that combat is central to D&D, the process of combat is incredibly cumbersome and trying to run 6-8 cumbersome encounters in a single adventuring day is asking too much in my opinion.

I would love to hear other ideas on what else we can come up with in the place of a combat encounter that still has the necessary impact on player choice and resource use.