Environmental means:
[. . .]
The definition of the Environmental tag has been discussed to the ground. By this point, I don't think anybody in this topic is having trouble understanding its definition. The problem is that we don't
like the definition of the environmental tag. Nifflas made this tag with a specific type of level in mind. But for some of the community, when we see this tag, we yearn for something more versatile.
I still don't get it why people need to put Environmental and Challenge in the same level. Either its environmental or its a challenge.
I feel like say the question is more like "why
wouldn't people", but I'll explain one mindset that I think is common: The mindset of "calling your level Environmental is how you say you focused on visuals."
One contributing factor is that the environmental tag
exists. There is a category that designates levels as pretty. And because of this, a level author may feel that their pretty level needs to have a "pretty" category.
The other factor is that environmental tag is the
only pretty category. Together with the first reason, this is why people feel they need to put Environmental and Challenge in the same level. Because they see a way - and only one way - to tag their level as aesthetic, they want to use it.
So when people can't use it, they feel like they're being told that their level is "too difficult to be called pretty." This is why the environmental category causes such frustration. The only pretty category is incompatible with other categories! If there's going to be one and only one "eye candy" tag, it ought to be compatible with any other tag whose name isn't "Plain"!
To the Jack, I'll add what you're saying to my list. Although I do think that an
official category would be 100x more effective than the use of custom categories. Of people browsing the archive and/or their installed levels, I see several cases:
1. Forumites who know about the Scenic tag and the significance attached to it.
2. Forumites who don't know about the Scenic tag, but can easily ask.
3. Non-forumites who never notice it.
4. Non-forumites who are confused by all the levels that use it when it isn't explicitly recognized by the game.
5. Non-forumites who dismiss it, thinking it must be an old, obsolete, or deprecated category.
6. Non-forumites who aren't sure of the difference between it and Environmental.
And of level authors, I see three types:
1. Those who know about it and consider it whenever making a level.
2. Those who know about it but never remember or even care to use it.
3. Those who don't know about it.
All in all, even though we'll know about it, I doubt it would be very popular.
Aaaaand I got ninja'd by the Jack.