I understand the necessity of consumable or costly material components, but what is the point—in terms of making the game more interesting—of inexpensive material components, like a leaf of sumac or a tiny ball of bat guano?

I've never seen anybody even bother with these kinds of particular items in any D&D 5e streams. Every caster uses either an arcane focus or a spell component pouch (or a musical instrument if a bard).

This question assumes such material components in 3e are a legacy feature from when most components were consumable, but for 5e is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific inexpensive material components instead of alone, general focus item?

I understand the necessity of consumable or costly material components, but what is the point—in terms of making the game more interesting—of inexpensive material components, like a leaf of sumac or a tiny ball of bat guano?

I've never seen anybody even bother with these kinds of particular items in any D&D 5e streams. Every caster uses either an arcane focus or a spell component pouch (or a musical instrument if a bard).

This question assumes such material components in 3e are a legacy feature from when most components were consumable, but for 5e is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific inexpensive material components instead of alone, general focus item?

I understand the necessity of consumable or costly material components, but what is the point—in terms of making the game more interesting—of inexpensive material components, like a leaf of sumac or a tiny ball of bat guano?

I've never seen anybody even bother with these kinds of particular items in any D&D 5e streams. Every caster uses either an arcane focus or a spell component pouch (or a musical instrument if a bard).

This question assumes such material components in 3e are a legacy feature from when most components were consumable, but for 5e is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific inexpensive material components instead of a lone, general focus item?

I understand the necessity of consumable or costly material components, but what is the point—in terms of making the game more interesting—of inexpensive material components, like a leaf of sumac or a tiny ball of bat guano?

I've never seen anybody even bother with these kinds of particular items in any D&D 5e streams. Every caster uses either an arcane focus or a spell component pouch (or a musical instrument if a bard).

This question assumes such material components in 3e are a legacy feature from when most components were consumable, but for 5e is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific inexpensive material components instead of alone, general focus item?

I understand the necessity of consumable or costly Material components. But, in terms of making gameplay more interesting, what is the point of "cheap" (no cost specified in the PhB) Material Components, like a "leaf of sumac" or "a tiny ball of bat guano"?

Watching D&D 5e streams I've never seen anybody even bother if their heroes have that particular item, every caster just uses either an Arcane Focus or a Component Pouch (or a musical instrument for Bards) as a single item.  This question assumes it was a legacy (pre-3rd) feature, from the times when all components were consumable.

For the 5th edition, is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific items, instead of a single general "focus" item, in order to be cast?

I understand the necessity of consumable or costly material components, but what is the point—in terms of making the game more interesting—of inexpensive material components, like a leaf of sumac or a tiny ball of bat guano?

I've never seen anybody even bother with these kinds of particular items in any D&D 5e streams. Every caster uses either an arcane focus or a spell component pouch (or a musical instrument if a bard). 

This question assumes such material components in 3e are a legacy feature from when most components were consumable, but for 5e is there any particular reason why many spells still require specific inexpensive material components instead of a lone, general focus item?