I agree with you, and I also like playing these games, even though they are "a little stupid". But I think some abstractions can be better than others. The ab

I agree with you, and I also like playing these games, even though they are "a little stupid". But I think some abstractions can be better than others. The abstractions of Catan, for example, make sense, since they somehow capture the essence of the things: a terrain simply produces a good, goods can be traded, houses can be built from goods. Of course it is not perfect, but doesn't bug my mind. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, has so many types of buildings and actions, all referring to real-world things, that it is impossible to make decent abstrations. I guess I'm just advocating less detailed real-world themes, if you can't make simple abstractions that make sense.