GURPS: I Don't Need Those Other Games

After being outside the GURPS market and gaming scene for a while, I noticed one thing about GURPS and the view on other games: They are mostly unnecessary, and the rules in them, no matter how innovative, are also unneeded.

Pathfinder 2's "3 action economy?" Or D&D's several "special action types" and the limitations around their use? A solution to what problem?

GURPS solves every action economy game design issue with the 1-second turn. There are many "overly game-designed"  elements in other games that GURPS just does not need since the core game loop is almost programmed like a computer simulation game. The more abstraction you layer onto a game, the more you must invent these phases, limits, special action types, action economies, spell limits, conditions, and other fiddly bits to make the abstraction layers work.

You see this in "grand strategy wargaming," and newer game designs take this "macro abstraction" and apply it to individual-scale combat encounters.

GURPS says, "Your clever game design makes your game more complicated."

GURPS would also say, "The problems you inherited from D&D were solved decades ago by simulation-based systems."

The classic Aftermath game was also a simulation-based game that solved many of AD&D's problems. We played this back in the day, and we did not need other game systems and their cute ways of doing things, dice pools, armor class numbers, or any of those other abstract concepts.

Yes, we don't have all your fun rule subsystems, but are we here to fiddle with character builds while optimizing feat and class combos,  or just have the minimum needed to "tell a story together?"

Back then, a solid simulation system could tell any story, and that was all we needed.