I think its the duality between macro and micro. In strategy games, you're often concerned with the macro game. Yes there's "micro" in strategy games, but you

I think its the duality between macro and micro. In strategy games, you're often concerned with the macro game. Yes there's "micro" in strategy games, but you can't ever take control of a single pawn and play as them (I think the one game that tried to do this was Dungeon Keeper 2, where you could "possess" a minion and play a limited fps-style game in your dungeon). FPS gives you a quick, short term escape from reality as you're transformed into a different, perhaps more controlled reality with very well defined and measurable objectives. Strategy and open world games like Factorio, Stardew Valley, Minecraft etc. let you go nuts, with no real objectives except those that you make yourself. I'm guessing human brains like variety. So if you have to strategize too much at work, you're likely to want a mindless romp through zombies with a machine gun. If you're doing mindless enterprise coding, maybe you're likely to want to plan, build and optimize a gigafactory in factorio to feel more in control of your world.