ALL OF THIS EMBARASING SHISH SAID WITHOUT EVEN READING THE OP
Man you actually find people desperate enough to let you DM for them? Oof.
Agree on everything the OP says pretty much. The inflexibility of a crpg without a DM needs to take this into account. Nothing wrong with failing as long it's done in an interesting way. In dialogue it should not completely shut the whole thing down but leave at least some clue or hint of how to get to the solution you need. While I would love to have as interesting a system of checks as Disco Elysium has, I think it could prove to be too much work considering how far along the development already is. A threshold system seems like something more achievable at this point.
I'd hide unsuccessful perception checks etc. too... It kind of goes counter the whole point of failing those checks. Combat related checks don't really even come into the whole issue.
