So you don't care what RPG is defined as, but you think genre characteristics are useful.
Yes, that's what I just said.
If RPG is anything the majority says it is, then RPG characteristics are also anything the majority says, therefore any "discussion" about them in not only uninteresting, it's completely pointless.
That's a non sequitur. It is true that a RPG is anything the general consensus says it is, and RPG characteristics are also anything the general consensus says they are. However, it does not follow that any discussion about RPGs or RPG characteristics is necessarily uninteresting or pointless.
As a more general principle, I think arguing about definitions is pointless. It may sometimes be necessary to have a short discussion on definitions to avoid people talking past one another -- if both of us are using the term "RPG characteristics" for example but our definitions are widely divergent, nothing much is going to come of the discussion. Therefore, for the purposes of our discussion, we would need to agree what definition of "RPG characteristics" we're using in that context. Assuming that that provisional definition has any wider validity or in and of itself has any value would be a mistake, however.
Edit: ... moreover ...
You could make a case that RPG Codex should use a more restrictive definition for RPGs than the general consensus, a niche within a niche as it were.
However, I don't think that would be a strong case. I already presented some evidence for that -- the all-time Codex top 101, and the lists of high-ranking games in Codex GOTYs. These demonstrate a fairly broad view of the genre: the #1 game is Planescape: Torment which is clearly the weakest of the IE games in the "trad RPG" sense (most limited character build options, most limited equipment options, most limited party-building options, weakest combat), the top 10 includes Deus Ex which isn't usually classified as a RPG at all, Witcher 3 which is an aRPG-lite was GOTY, and so on and so forth.
These games -- and Disco Elysium too, for that matter -- also get a
lot of attention here. Bataille's review thread was one of the longest in the News & Content section, and the game gets discussed here extremely actively, both by its fans and its detractors. So the Codex is clearly much broader than a Fallout fan site at this point. If you don't like it, you can always GTFO and start your own site you know.