I’m not saying that you’re wrong. I also enjoy interactive fiction with set protagonists. In fact some of my favourite works of interactive fiction also have set protagonists.
The official Choice of Games all have a specific style. Part of that style’s the ability to play near blank slate self-insert protagonists. It’s their thing. It means that anyone can pick up an official CoG game and know that they can play male or female, gay or straight. That’s part of the appeal for many people.
I think we’ve had other discussions on these forums about set protagonists vs blank slate ones. More choices vs fewer. That sort of thing.
You can write the more defined sorts of protagonists for the Hosted Games label. And those are greatly welcomed too. It’s like, imagine you pick up Agatha Christie’s Poirot book and instead of getting the mystery detective novel, you’re expecting, you get a steamy bodice-ripping romance. It might be the most amazing romance there is, and Poirot might be a heart-throb, but it’s not the sort of book you intended to buy or read. If you’d wanted a romance novel, you wouldn’t have picked up Poirot.
We’d a discussion about character creation here and I think there’s been some others. Feel free to start another one. Especially if you’ve ideas on how to make things feel more natural. I tend to dislike it too. I’m all yawn, boring, I don’t care, particularly if it happens right at the start of the game. I’d much rather it’s just part of the story.