For whatever reason, a lot of people out there get really pissed off that these narrative-focused, conflict-free games exist, and such irrationally angry detractors started derisively calling these games “walking simulators.”

I don't know about others but I don't have a problem with these types of games, I have a problem with people putting them in a pedestal, like no game before made me "conect the dots", feel empathy towards a character or simply enjoy its world; or people saying if I don't like one of these games I'm either too dumb to "get it" or I'm an asshole who lacks empathy.

You don’t call FPSes “shooting simulators” or turn-based RPGs “queuing simulators,”

But you call plataformers, plataformers; collectathons, collectathons; dating simulators, dating simulators; sandbox games, sandbox games; etc.

but this genre—whose most famous example, non-coincidentally, highlights LGBTQ characters and relationships—

There has been more popular walking simulators than gone home, like the Stanley Parable.