I dislike the oft repeated fudge advice. Why not just do a collaborative writing exercise if you don’t want to actually use the rules of the game you’re playing?

As a player, I would be crushed to find out the GM was fudging. It would make all of my decisions pointless.

As a GM, if you fudge, you are effectively removing the players’ agency. You are becoming the sole arbiter of the story to be told, and they are just along for the ride.

If your spectators want that, cool. But I’d much rather be an active player.

I believe you’re blowing the idea of the fudged roll out of proportion, friend. No one is suggesting doing this on a continual basis - ie, fudging every single dice roll in the game. As a GM, my first responsibility is to ensure (as much as possible) that my players have a good time. I don’t get my rocks off watching my players die or have anxiety attacks at the table (though there are plenty of GMs who do). If the roleplaying would be best served by me overlooking a shitty dice roll from time to time, I have absolutely no qualms with that. At all. Of course, if my players make idiotic decisions and ignore every subtle warning I can throw at them to NOT do what they’re doing, then I let the dice fall how they will.

My opinion is not based on continuous fudging.

Perhaps I can reword my opinion to be better understood. You don’t need to agree with it, but this is my opinion.

The GM fudging is removing the agency of the players, by deciding that the rules of the game (Eg, the dice result) do not at an arbitrary time serve the story that the GM thinks is best.

Challenge: would you be okay with a player lying (fudging) a dice result to facilitate a result that they found more fun?