It’s not just you. I know I used to think like that, and bring up emergent gameplay, too. Here’s the thing, though, Funcom’s definition of exploit is in the ToS, and it looks like this:
On top of that, you have people arguing that any technique that can be abused should be removed even if it has legitimate uses.
One example where we’ve had that discussion recently is the advanced building technique that allows placing fence foundations close to each other. That technique can be used for decorative purposes, but it’s most often abused to stack fence foundations in depth on a PVP server.
The argument from the PVP abusers of that technique was that if you can abuse it, then it shouldn’t be in the game, because an exploit is an exploit and it doesn’t matter if you can use it in a way that doesn’t negatively impact anyone else’s experience in the game.
And Funcom agrees with them, because the TestLive build 2.8 now removed that technique. Obviously, I’m salty about Funcom yet again siding with the specific subset of PVP players that refuses to take responsibility for their own choice to abuse a technique – and I’m not even going to try to hide how salty I am about it – so now I want raise awareness of this whole argument that “an exploit is an exploit” and “if I can abuse it, nobody should be able to use it”.
Let’s see if more people – especially PVP players – are going to tell abusers to shut up if it’s something they care about, rather than some niche PVE concern.