The crux of my issues with the criticism is that the background was mechanically identical to the "normal" dwarf other than dwarf NPCs dehumanising the Ill-formed Dwarf. There's a lot in that metaphor but I particularly resonated with that from the standpoint of an autistic person

I believe it was yes, though I didn't realise you were involved in the subsequent revision process. As you say Troika was not and is not perfect but I am still very defensive of the Ill-formed Dwarf

I would love you even in your century of humiliation (hypothetically)

I have an English degree but not in a useful way. I just have opinions on literature

They might be worth a look if you're reading up in the area. I will warn you though that I'm pretty sure the books were put together by a 60 something in Microsoft Word so art objects they are not.

Not exactly a mainstream example, but the "Twilight of" series of games (Twilight of the Sun King ect) do something similar to this at a similar scale for large scale 17th/18th century battles.

Three days of writing 500 worlds and voila! Like magic I now have 1500 words