The Non-Euclidian Staircase

I'm not a fan of Metaplot, to put it mildly.

Publishers do not know how my game's dynamics work. They don't know which NPCs touch our PC's hooks. They have no idea what plot twists will be surprises to us nor which ones will be dull and predictable. They don't know what changes we've already made that will contradict what they will do later. They simply can't know that (even if they do something like TORG's odd player-voted metaplot progressions).

And, worst of all, since they don't know these things, they are left to write their own plot, one driven by the NPCs they picked and moving in the directions they prefer. But a game isn't about the NPCs, it's about the PCs. Which means that metaplot is always wrong because it always takes the focus away from the PCs.

And, to make things even worse, they cripple the GM. If I'm stuck in a game with metaplot, anything I try to do with the NPCs will potentially contradict things the publisher has planned to do, or will do between when I start my game and when I'm done. And so I have to either not use their world to avoid contradicting them or I have to ignore what they do in metaplot once I start... which means, either way, it's not helping me any more.

And why should I want something that hurts the PCs (by taking the focus off them) and hurts the GM (by limiting their options and creativity)?