I think one of the things simlike mechanics bring to the table is simply a way to justify constraints.

Reality, by its nature, has constraints to actions built in, and those constraints lead to interesting situations and solutions.

Compare space sims to flight sims.

Space sims, in general, greatly simplify the flight model. Greatly simplify ship controls. Gravity is gone. Ammo is gone. System damage is gone. Landings is gone. Fueling is gone. Flight ceilings are gone. The ground is gone. Clouds are gone. Flight dynamics/flight envelope characteristics are gone. Day/night is gone. G effects are gone.

And I'm not saying you need to have all those things to have fun gameplay, but if you removed literally all of those things, you'd have a pretty bland flight sim.

But that's what space sims do. They try to emulate flight sims, but gut almost all of the complexity and constraint from them, and they never really add any complexity back. Maybe some 'shields/thrust/weapons' power control, or an afterburner with a capacitor. The end result is gameplay boiled down to 'press R, turn, shoot'. There's no maneuvers to learn, no kinetic energy management to learn.