[nascent]

Yes I know there's the ability to filter by play count but in the same reason that watched status exists in addition to play count.  It's important to have the ability to mark things as watched even if you aren't playing them through kodi.

I have thousands of watched movies and tv shows that I've watched, and are marked watched, yet there's no way to create playlists to filter them without workarounds.

[Hitcher]

I'm not sure I follow?

You can make as watched using 'w' on a keyboard or via the context menu.
You can filter a playlist using the media menu to toggle 'All videos' or 'Unwatched'.

[ashlar]

I have thousands of watched movies and tv shows that I've watched, and are marked watched, yet there's no way to create playlists to filter them without workarounds.

Can't you use a rule "Play count is 0" for that?