The map is not the territory. Any model or abstraction will not be able to completely replicate the thing or phenomena it represents, as the real life thing is

The map is not the territory. Any model or abstraction will not be able to completely replicate the thing or phenomena it represents, as the real life thing is too vast and complicated and interwoven with all sorts of variables in time and space that there's no way to represent it all. Laws of physics, finance, chemistry, economics, medicine, etc. are all the same. Just models, not perfect. Convenient and useful models, but models all the same. Human brains just aren't capable of capturing anything in its totality, so at some point everything "gets a little stupid". That being said, I can understand what you mean about these euro-style games where often many of the things in them can boil down to 'go here to do this 'real world thing' which in this game really just means it gets you a +2 to this widget that will earn you an extra 6 points at the end of the game. So thematic :) I still really like these games, but I like learning and manipulating game systems and mechanisms.