For RTS it's a question of scope: How much of the resource base do you model? It could've been abstracted much further than this, and just grant resources passi

For RTS it's a question of scope: How much of the resource base do you model? It could've been abstracted much further than this, and just grant resources passively based on territory held, or some other metric, and fully focus on battles. Instead we got a genre where resource collection is fairly involved, and a vulnerable spot for enemies to go after to cripple opponents early. I don't think it was inevitable that the latter style of RTS would be dominant, and only a few outliers focus on simpler economic models, it very well could've been the other way around.