Given the popularity of Dwarf Fortress, I'm not sure that the author is wrong.

I mean... I found Oregon Trail fun despite dying of dysentery more times than I could count.

The thing about games is that when everyone dies, you just click the "New Game" button and try again. Failing over-and-over again in a game is allowed. In fact, I dare say that modern games don't provide enough room for failure compared to older games.

See the "Why not?" section: "There are some good reasons why city building games are not that historically accurate and instead adhere to the established formula of the city building game."

I'd say the author understands perfectly well. It's still interesting to discuss where they deviate from reality and to what extent.

The author addresses in a section how well or not well this realism could potentially interact with actual gameplay and fun.