That's true Shawn, but it's also a fact that an MEL cannot be less restrictive than the MMEL, so if an operator wishes to include items that are not covered in the 'generic' MMEL the authority will want a lot of good 'gen' to support approval.
I once had to write an MEL before the manufacturer had written the MMEL - it resulted in pretty detailed analysis by all relevant systems specialists and I would say the eventual MMEL was not generic.
One area I think alot of MELs fall down on is not interpreting the 'national authority's' requirements for things like navaids. When a crew is looking through the MEL to see if they can dispatch with a u/s DME, the last thing they need to see is 'As required by local regulations'!