It's totally about "production aspects," those specific 10 rules as listed there. At least on its face.
As for it being overly restrictive, or provoking, pointless, irrelevant, pretentious, weird... I mean, yeah. And that's partially the point: it is knowingly referring to itself self-importantly as "dogma," after all.
But look at those rules and they're all about removing choices: aspect ratio, sets, props, lighting, music, color grading. It's all the stuff other than the story and the acting that you might otherwise turn your attention to as a filmmaker (or a viewer). It's not uncommon to find value in being restricted when making art, whether that's for reasons beyond your control like available technology or budget, or something self-imposed.
I'd think of it as something very similar to Oulipo in literature.
As for it being overly restrictive, or provoking, pointless, irrelevant, pretentious, weird... I mean, yeah. And that's partially the point: it is knowingly referring to itself self-importantly as "dogma," after all.
But look at those rules and they're all about removing choices: aspect ratio, sets, props, lighting, music, color grading. It's all the stuff other than the story and the acting that you might otherwise turn your attention to as a filmmaker (or a viewer). It's not uncommon to find value in being restricted when making art, whether that's for reasons beyond your control like available technology or budget, or something self-imposed.
I'd think of it as something very similar to Oulipo in literature.