You think it’s the greatest game mechanic specifically because of how rare it is. Truth is if it was in every game it wouldn’t be special.

WB copyrighted it specifically for this purpose, they wanted to be able to maintain the value of it so that they could roll it out into games of their choosing. It keeps their LOTR games popular… and also helps them keep rights to them.

They don’t own rights to this IP. So this is something that keeps them relevant.