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Yeah. The idea that you can gut the core of the game (background fluff) in favor of a few choices because "no one takes the other options anyways" is patently false, and is indicative of competitive thinking that does not account for people who would prefer to use units which, while their rules might have less power, their model is attractive or the background resonates with them.

And yes, you could simply reduce the game to stat blocks based on role, but why stop there? How far is it okay to reduce the game? I mean, chess is an accurate simulation of Warhammer 40k if you abstract it enough. It's got screens (pawns), powerful heroes (queens), objectives (kings), deep strikes (or at least infinite movement in a direction), units with fly (knights)...