Fields of Contest

[terodil]

And a hammer doesn't drive in a nail without being swung - that doesn't mean that it's not somehow better suited to that than some random rock. These subsystems are tools, and acting like them not operating autonomous somehow negates that is dubious.

I agree, in principle, but then you'd need to demonstrate that there exists a hammer that is strictly superior to the rock we've been using so far. I'm not saying there isn't one, all I'm saying is that I personally don't believe that any amount of effort invested into the design and observance of more complex rules (the hammer) will provide better pay-off in terms of GM/player engagement than the same amount of effort invested into RPing the results granted by the rock instead.