Does having magic exist mean having to do more worldbuilding?

I'm a writer of fantasy fiction, working on a new piece with magic. Some users on Reddit and elsewhere said I had to do MORE worldbuilding for the magic in my story than I would in a contemporary or other "realistic" story. Numbers of people seem to think that when an author doesn't explicitly address how the magic works, in the story or out, they'll lose readers and take a hit to credibility.<br><br>First, I think that's FALSE. In Gothic literature, like in Edgar Allan Poe's, it is OK to leave the reader guessing as to the nature of a ghost, animated corpse, or more abstract terror. Why can't the same be true for magic? Tons of stories in the cannon of fantasy fiction don't explain in mathematics the way the magic works.<br><br>Second, magic is in so many stories, even contemporary fiction, that I don't think it's a big deal anymore for readers. It's not like when fantasy was a fringe genre and having magic was an exception to rules. Magic is a familiar literary device that readers will recognize and accept immediately. <br><br>Third, readers are not as stupid as some writers, editors, or literary critics think. Any reader worth having as a reader will be able to infer how the magic works in your story. If you say magic makes telekinesis possible, people can infer that using magic can move objects. They can also infer that magic is necessary to move objects. An example: For my story, if I had a scene where a minor character is begging a mage for magic, and the mage says no, then my readers can infer that there was only one magical solution to the problem, and that solution is no longer available.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>And I don't know if anybody here has heard of the Iceberg Method of worldbuilding. The concept goes like this: you do as much worldbuilding as you can imagine, but you never state it explicitly in your text, dialogue, or anywhere. Rather, you use suggestion and inference. I think my worldbuilding style is much more deductive, relying on the reader to make the connections between clues, rather than saying it outright or spelling it out for them.