I understand the short stack strategy and it’s strengths and weaknesses very well. What I don’t understand as well I guess is that you constantly refer to the other players on these games as “droolers” and “mouth breathers” and pretty much say they suck at poker. Why then do you not want to see more flops cheaply where you have the flexibility to get away from flops you miss. It seems they will still give you action most of the time when you connect with the flop and may even be able to steal the occasional pot on the flop with a shove to deny them of their equity.
Getting it all in preflop denies them the ability to make mistakes post flop vs you.
Also, if you win one of these flips and have a $2k+ stack do you leave? Do you change your strategy to play a deeper stack style of poker? Do you continue to get it in preflop hoping to do it again?
I see this strategy used a lot at the local casino. Players buy in for $200 looking to get it all in preflop and 5x it. Problem is they end up doing that 5 times and still have not won one and are now in the hole $1k. Then they finally do win 1 and are close to even and have no idea how to play a $1/2/5 game with a $1k stack and usually lose it all going all in with a bare nut flush draw, because that is what they do with a $200 stack every time.
I DO want to see more flops cheaply. In last nights game that just wasn't going to be possible given the lineup. These guys were regularly straddling and then someone would raise it to $200+ and if I'm buying in deeper stacked as well you get put in spots where you call that $200+ and go multiway to a flop with over a grand in it or someone else reraises preflop to $800+, etc.
So by buying in short it allows me to take my stronger hands to showdown without risking too much of my buyins at one time, because when they're straddling to 80 preflop full buyins can get chewed up very quickly.
Pre-Covid the games didn't permit unlimited restraddles, but they changed the games so that the 5/5 and above now do have unlimited restraddles. It attracts the degens, but also increases the swings as well.
I mean, these guys are potting UTG with 2335 double s00ted and repotting my limp-repot with T984 single suited, if those aren't straight droolers I don't know what else to call them.
If I 3-5x my stack obviously my strategy will change as I am deeper-stacked. I prefer to keep pots small and multiway to see flops as much as I can, but if that doesn't look to be possible then I'll get up and leave. There was a game last month where as soon as I sat down in the 5/5/10 it was restraddled to 160 preflop and I wound up winning a pot of $5500 or so. But then I saw EVERY hand at this table was $500-1K preflop and opted to get out rather than ride that variance train.
I know how to play deepstacked poker and prefer to play it, but if they're making it 80 or 200 or 800 preflop almost every hand then me buying in for the $2500 max isn't "deepstacked" in any sense of the word because they'd made the game play bigger and the stacks shallower.
But when they're all sitting with thousands in front of them I can put them in more danger than I put myself by buying in for the $500 in a game like that, because the reward is greater than my risk, while they are putting stacks of 3k-8K at risk playing 2335 double s00ted out of position in bloated pots or dangler hands like T984 single suited.
and wins
and see a multiway flop of 
