I think you’re right. I’ve eaten vegan most of my life and take creatine to make up for the lack of it in my diet with no downsides. It gives me a little more energy for workouts and runs. I don’t look bigger or bulkier, just feel a bit sharper.

I also understand the discomfort with the culture of “optimize everything” and constant self-experimentation. Supplements like creatine get framed as steps toward some perfect, engineered version of ourselves, and that framing feels like a hangover of eugenics thinking. It causes an acute, if subconscious, aversion that can manifest in the cool dismal of your parent's comment.

That unease matters. Maybe if we were more objective we would say it should not matter, but it does. And, while I often just ignore it, I am not sure I want to fully let go of it yet.