My stubbornness bit me in the ass.

Instead doing what they suggest and utilizing a word that incorporates as many of the letters that would work as possible (even though doing that almost always involves using a word that can't be the word), I kept thinking I was going to solve the puzzle on my next guess.

And rover goes against my natural inclination to guess a redundant letter.

...you can't guess random words that don't contain the letters you already got.

That is what I was trying to say. I can't remember the prompt but I got all but the first letter on MY FIRST GUESS a few months ago and still got it wrong. Nearly rage quit ever playing again.

When I miss, it is often because of the tendency you mention. I fail to take into account the possibility of a second use of the an already successfully guessed letter.

Sometimes you are left with multiple options for a single letter and it is a a guessing game.

Today I lost that guessing game.

and I suppose the better strategy if the objective is to avoid coming up craps is to formulate a guess that incorporates as many of the potential "last letters" as possible, even though that guess could not be the correct word.

My objective is to guess the word in as few guess as possible, so I'm loathe to "waste" a guess with the above strategy. Today, it cost me.