>>64006282
My BattleTech universe headcanon has literally been swimming in my head for the last 7 years or so just waiting for this exact thread to be made holy shit.

I thought it was weird at first too that they would resort to such an inefficient way to fight when they can just blow each other off the map much more easily, but then I realized, it's so obvious: Them being so efficient at potentially wiping each other out on a continental level is a deterrent in itself, and whoever does it first would also be wiped off the map in response, it simply isn't worth it. For any situation.

Mech designs and the elite pilots inside them become points of national pride for their respective houses, both between leaders and even for their citizenry, and it still allows them to flex their advanced technology by designing the most efficient and effective weapon possible on the fundamentally very inefficient and ineffective platform that is mechs. The ability to settle disputes this way, with only cities being leveled instead of entire continents, it allows wars and conflicts to be waged and settled in an almost "gloves on" fashion where the stakes still matter and the world doesn't end, and in spite of all they can do already, there is still motivation to raise the bar, to advance even further in technology and find and train even better pilots. It's a perfect middle ground between settling all disagreements with sports ball teams, and all-out war. Call it a sort of kayfabe that nobody involved wants to break, because the result would simply be apocalyptic.