...yeah, i think that's an essential cultural distinction between tabletop and videogame backgrounds; i started seeing the transition in campaign styles in parallel with the advent of structured narratives around the mid-eighties leading into the nineties...
...by contrast, our groups routinely swap DM roles across multiple tables which all share the same more-or-less persistent world, although individual character and DM experiences can vary within the boundaries of narrative coherence...that sustained investment is the fundamental point of of our tabletop campaigns; it distinguishes freeform from prescribed gameplay and is why we chose open-ended campaigns over closed-form boardgames...
...are you familiar with the old RPGA living campaigns?..ignoring the structured campaign setting, that style of pickup game used to be how most folks played...
...if player characters aren't at liberty to move between campaigns, then ultimately no, they don't have agency: they're just ephemeral labor playing-out the DM's narrative with nothing to show for it afterward...
...mind, i'm not damning that arrangement - some folks enjoy the transient experience - but i have no interest in investing my own creative energy toward anything that i don't keep...
...folks frequently presume i'm a recording on telephone calls; i used to do radio so i guess my extemporaneous diction comes across more composed than anticipated...
...i though vibe code was strictly a pejorative term: are there people who use it non-ironically?..