[mlthoughts2018]

I think this is not really true at all. Yasser Seirawan has written and lectured extensively about playing variations of the English & 1. Nf3 openings as white, and King’s Indian Defense and various Pirc / French / Caro-Kann lines that allow either player to pretty much veer out of theory-heavy variations and reach early positions in which there are no sharp tactical edges to the game and your opponent could not generally have forced any without entering a dramatically losing position.