Oh lordy, a game could not in a million years survive nothing but reactions. Can you imagine? Everyone would be tearing each other’s eyes out.

Totally agree that there’s a balance to look for. I think a big part of reaching that balance is just knowing that it even exists. I feel like players mostly aren’t sensitive to the difference, and most GMs are little more than intuitively sensitive to it. Like, it shows up in play tempo: when everyone’s got the balance right, things are moving forward at a good clip and everyone’s emotionally engaged.