Ehh... I don't put much stock in day/night cycles or resting as "World simulation"
I've played WAY too many games where such things existed and they added literally nothing to the world simulation at all,.
No, you didn't. It may be that you played them and you didn't appreciate what they added to the mix, on the other hand.
Yes I did.
You don't get to dictate what games have done just because it doesn't fit in your narrow view that simply slotting in some mechanic magically makes a game better.
Keep in mind, in another thread you were going on about how you hate "Classless Systems". Do I get to start saying "No, you never played a game where a classless system made it worse. You just didn't understand what it added to the game!"
As with every game mechanic, it all depends on how well its implemented.
Like you mention, if it adds flavour, cosmetic variety, immersion, NPC scheduling, variety of possible encounters, it can actually provide something to the game.
But if it doesn't add any of that and it's merely just "Game becomes an eye strain for a few minutes" then it's not providing anything positive to the game.
This is why I said I've played too many games that have featured day/night cycles and they added nothing. They didn't provide flavour, immersion, NPC scheduling, variety of encounters. It was shallow and did nothing but make things harder to see for no reason. All this added to the game was making it more annoying (And headache inducing from eye strain).
That isn't to say that all games are like this. No, I've played my fair share of games where day/night cycles were done properly and they did add things to the game. For example, Skyrim alters NPC scheduling (Including humanoid enemies). Tainted Grail both alters NPC scheduling, adds special loot drops at night and replaces currently despawned enemies with new encounters.
But again, these had to actually do something with the mechanic besides slap it in. They had to use it as a vehicle to add those additional game alterations to give it meaning.
