ETA: I think that maybe what is rankling with you is that you feel that my statement was overreaching before, in that the aspect of freeform play is partly discarded in a simulation in exchange for the imposition of more rules, so in your opinion it is much different and an important part is lost. I do feel that they are different, and I thought that this was understood: one does allow more scope for imagination; the other allows more scope for strategy and a more realistic experience of actually controlling soldiers in a real battle, despite the loss of the ability for tanks to teleport at will and other physically impossible feats, for superhuman abilities to save the day, space aliens to land and intervene, etc.
I'm sure some kids are all about fantasy and some all about strategy and some about a mix. Some prefer historically accurate battles and some do not. I can't see that imaginative play is lacking in strategy because I've seen very complex, strategic play. To create your own strategic play requires the ability to think through different game mechanics and make experiments about what works and what doesn't.
Sure, in the real life game you might teleport or bring in aliens but you are thinking of it and doing it. The reality is that yes in a computer game you can kill yourself and press start again. The difference with real life games is you need to use imagination and social skills instead of just pressing a button.
If I were to use your style of reasoning above, I'd be inserting a statement or question here suggesting that by your logic, we can't expose our children to any sort of story or media created by another, due to the risk that they'd just be acting as a "consumer of a world".
I haven't seen kids lose imagination or creation from reading or listening to stories, I have seen it from too much screens. Not all of them, but a lot of them, yes.
I'm certainly not against all uses of computers. Not sure where that leap is coming from.
It is also acting devoid of an integrated sensory and motor experience.
This doesn't hold water. Does one not reap the benefits of playing chess when one uses a board displayed on a computer screen, instead of holding the pieces in one's hand?