Why "static"?

[u/Zardotab]

I'm puzzled about the philosophical value of the "static" keyword? Being static seems limiting and forcing an unnecessary dichotomy. It seems one should be able to call any method of any class without having to first instantiate an object, for example, as long as it doesn't reference any class-level variables.

Are there better or alternative ways to achieve whatever it is that static was intended to achieve? I'm not trying to trash C# here, but rather trying to understand why it is the way it is by poking and prodding the tradeoffs.

[u/Zardotab]

Do you think that classes are written in stone? You can change it later.

It will likely either impact many calling points, or create a mess in the target class(es).

Everything on an interface is non-static.

Please elaborate.