I’m talking in the context of the “capitalist rules”. If you say the aforementioned sentence, you remove the responsibility of the player by dismissing the fact that the winner makes the rules.
PS: Doesn’t work for every context: if the player aims to change the rules because he doesn’t like them, he might see winning as a way to change them. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” I guess…
Well I’d say it’s a hate-terminating cliche. As in, “Hey let’s stop thinking about how much we hate that guy, when he’s trying to feed his family”.
“Trying to feed your family” does not excuse everything. In fact I would say “they are just trying to feed their family” is almost on par with “it is what it is” as a thought terminating cliché.