"Specific beats General" is still a valid approach, and how the rules are written. If the generic rules say you can't do a thing, but then you have a racial or class feature that says "you can do the thing", then you can indeed do the thing.

E.g., usually Dashing is an Action, but since Rogues have the Cunning Action class feature, they can Dash as a Bonus Action.

For "reference", you can check page 7 of the PHB, under the header "Specific Beats General"