Rule 0 is not game design. WotC designs games.

WotC designs games. They design the cards, the reprints, the Limited environments, and the Commander precons. Each of those things have knobs that can be adjusted to fine-tune power: mana costs, toughnesses, and the quality of mana bases in precons.

They do this to ensure that out of the box, or out of the pack, the greatest number of players possible can have an enjoyable experience with their game. They're not packing in a handful of basics in the precons along with several Infinitokens for you to write-in shocklands, fetches, and OG duals. They're giving you a product that has been designed by experts.

"Rule 0" just doesn't have a place in that process, because Rule 0 is not a knob that can be turned. Rule 0 can't fix Nadu, and it can't guarantee that LGS Rando's "7" is what you think a "7" is. Rule 0 can't protect you from inevitable salt.

Of course, WotC isn't responsible for the recent ban. The RC is. But any organization who understands that Commander is the product of carefully considered game design, shouldn't be putting faith in house rules and encouragements to "communicate well" in order to protect players from bad experiences. The game needs to bake it in - into the rules, the bans, the economy. Do the absolute best you can with the design, the fine-tuning, and then finally let players have at it.

Banning Jeweled Lotus is turning a knob down. Banning Mana Crypt is turning a knob down. This is game design. It doesn't guarantee good games, but it's a decision made to hopefully decrease the number of bad games.

I hope more people can understand this perspective, especially as Commander only continues to increase in size as the "flagship" product and experience of Magic. Any governing body (WotC, RC, or otherwise) can't just keep the guardrails off when there are thousands of new players being introduced to it every week. These players need to be given a designed game, not an encouragement to communicate with other players who have no desire to engage on that level.