Creston: "Sorry, didn't mean to change the thread topic, but it does seem these days that either games are dumbed down to appeal to the masses (Helllllooooo Freelancer!), or are made more complex in an attempt to become deeper, but are totally fucked up in the process (and welcome to you, SimCity 4!)."
Two things: 1. Poor interface (a good one takes a lot of the aggravation out of it) and, one of the great problems of real life management technique, 2. micromanagement. Unfortunately, the desire to do the latter is built into a sim game... and probably has as much to do with the players who enjoy those games as it does with the developers.