I sort get the idea that Story Now ensures that something interesting happens. I have played in trad games where there were indeed long stretches where nothing interesting happened, and it is frustrating. I think it was often related to some sort of pixel hunty logic where there was interesting stuff somewhere, but we as player were poking at wrong things. Personally I really hate this, and in my own games try to make sure this doesn't happen.
Now mechanics where failures compel the GM to introduce complications is certainly one way to ensure that at least something happens. Whether that something is interesting probably still depends on the GM though.
When GMing trad games I try to plan dynamic situations, where there is something going on, so regardless of what the PCs do, even if nothing, some change of situation will eventually occur.
One observation I made about the Blades game I was playing in, was the situation was rarely like this. The situation was static until we as the players introduced change and chaos. But I am not sure if this is necessarily something that must be in this way in such a game, or is it just how the GM chose to run things.