The CO-board is the only place where the Crunch actually "means" anything at all.
Most other home games, the crunch and the fluff are irrelevant concepts, so far as
that home game is played.
And DM fiat is the thing that really matters, whether the DM and/or the players recognize it or not (or in between).
A limited number of D&D addicts (a good thing !!)
have treated the "Fluff" text as if it was defacto Crunch.
An example of this, is the Grand History Of The Realms book.
In essence, 30+ years of Fluff
is Crunch ... but obviously the category is different.
Especially in regard to the CO-board.
Never-the-less ... 4th Edition screws this up.
You can't operate some of the various abilities, without diving whole cloth into the "fluff" text.
Skill Challenges are basically fluff entirely, with the real Crunch just a side-bar and almost meaningless.
And the cupcakers that inhabit the 4e C"O"-board, want some of the Crunch to be treated as Fluff.
Whimper ...
... Monsters.
Crunch might have meaning. CO-board treats Crunch as a Yes Absolutely, or tries to.
Fluff usually doesn't have real meaning, but it can.
Crunch and Fluff have little backbone vs. varying degrees of DM fiat.
imho(s) ...