The way it normally gets defined, a lot of RTS games could be described as ARPGs, Vometia.
Look at the Total War games. Your generals level up, they gain abilities according to what you get them to do, and boy do they ever do a lot of fighting! You can even get them better equipment and followers.
And then there's the Dawn Of War games, where your main character levels up, earns new abilities, and pretty much serves as your in-game avatar.
By a lot of definitions being used in the computer industry, they'd qualify as RPGs, which is just crazy!
And yeah... 'RPG elements'... Even worse. Is there any game, anywhere that could NOT be described as having 'RPG elements'?
Even with something like Space Invaders or Pacman you're still 'taking on a role'.
I think you are getting just a bit technical there
