Let's look at what happened with my
Darkwing Duck pacifist movie. it has a place where you either die, or damage enemies, or use a subweapon. Damaging enemies was instantly criticized by everyone, but avoiding subweapons was my priority goal too; so I ended up using a single arrow to climb a single pipe and save one HP, taking damage on the enemy I would have to kill otherwise.
This decision is probably not so purist, but the end result looks perfect to me, as I didn't have to overuse anything I wanted to avoid, and overall the run still feels quite minimalistic.
Similar neat minimalism is there in NG pacifist as it was invented by the RTA crowd. The decision to not use a sword outside boss rooms 1) is very simple, and 2) it imposes extremely tight conditions, that are hard to route and optimize, and therefore the game becomes harder, which is always a priority, if it better showcases superplay.
What if we allow HP power ups delivered by the sword? It would make it more trivial, while also making it closer to any%, and it would be arbitrary too, if you only pick up HP, but not other power ups. Subweapons also make it easier and more similar to any%.
Here I'm applying my judge experience and outlook, not just my personal preference. And then there's tradition too. You are the boss here, so you can break any rules you feel like today, and setup new traditions, but we can't guarantee they will be appreciated by the viewers. Which is a requirement for additional branches like pacifist.
PS: Regarding subweapons just to show off, suriken is likely to get old quickly if you abuse it too much, and other subweapons probably need pauses to use them, and you need enemies to be around, while not getting touched by subweapons. It might be interesting, but it throws the entire
SUPEROPTIMIZEDASFUCK current run out of the window, saying "nah, try again, everything from scratch, see you in 10 years ahahahaha".
