It's even more pathetic than that. They aren't just expressing their will to play the game, they are asking for approval despite it. It's similar to the "nothing personal" disclaimer which is usually followed by something with significant personal disruption.

Most honestly expressed, they'd be, "I'm doing/about to do something that impacts you negatively, please don't retaliate against me because I don't like it when negative things happen to me."

Edit: just noticed the commenter you replied to reversed the original saying and agrees with you.

No players, no game

I'm pretty sure the saying goes, "don't hate the player, hate the game." Which implies that you shouldn't be blaming the bad actors but the bad system that causes it to be that way.