Choosing a random starting word isn’t necessarily inconsistent with playing to win. Even if it’s technically a handicap overall, it’s at least surmountable, and can be an advantage to stay nimble with the added “challenge”. I feel the same way about “hard mode” (which I still refer to as “easy mode”).
I play to use less guesses on weird days. So I start with letters that probably aren't very optimal, but when the wird itself uses rare letters, suddenly I'm the genius of the day.
Sticking with one really good word raises your chances of not losing, but it does get boring after a while.