Honestly I think you're looking for either Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, GURPS, or MERP based on that description. (MERP is basically Rolemaster lite and not very Tolkien - but Rolemaster is a game that badly needs a lite version). I'd also look at Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World for very different takes but don't think they are what you are looking for.
That is how we play 5e. HP = luck, exhaustion, minor scrapes, dodges, blocks, etc. Real hits (critical hits and when HP = 0) take damage from your bloodied HP (meat points if you will) which maxes out around 8-10 or so (for a Medium creature). 0 BHP = dead. One crit can kill you, and if you drop to 0 HP, you're in real trouble. We added lingering injuries from the DMG at one point, but it just wasn't enough fun for the added "simulation."
It depends a lot on how common they are. After all, whales much bigger than that exist and yet people travel across the ocean.
TBH, that is how most tables play 5E (luck, skill, dodging, etc.) and only going to 0 and maybe critical hits are considered "hits".
Which IMO is part of the problem. While not everything needs to be explicitly spelled or stated out, it would be nice to get a ballpark for some things to compare to others.
That is not an apples to apples comparison. We don't live in the ocean.It depends a lot on how common they are. After all, whales much bigger than that exist and yet people travel across the ocean.
Possibly, but from what I can see, most tables do not put any teeth behind that in terms of BHP/wounds/ or whatever you want to call them. A hit isn't any different from a Hit in most D&D games (except death saves I guess) I have seen. It most definitely feels different in our games.
OK, we did something like that back in our 1e days. But ultimately it just wasn't fun to always miss or have your damage reduced to 0 because of armor. Eventually, a bit of abstraction produced a much more enjoyable game experience for us. Love to hear how it goes for you, everyone is different after all!
I just quickly read the description over at DrivethruRPG, but I didn't see anything about the combat system. What, if anything, makes the combat system more simulationist?
When I think of simulation games the two systems that I look to are Hero System and GURPS. Both of which have Fantasy plug-ins that attempt to extend the simulation to the fantastic to more or less success depending on who you are. (Note that my experience with both systems was in their respective 3rd editions, so I don't know if anything about either of them changed in more recent editions).
Well that's the point. Fans as a whole don't care equally about simulation of all of the genre.
