delericho
Legend
If this is true, then the mechanics will fail.
Combat doesn't require the GM to be prepared - you drop in half-a-dozen gnolls, sketch out your room with a table, a firepit and a portcullis-and-winch at the other end, and things are good to go. Chases, if they are to work, need to be equally easy to implement.
Three things about that:
1) In all honesty, most no-prep combats aren't terribly interesting either. The 4e DMG was right to note that heterogeneous groups of enemies were usually more interesting that "4 orcs", and also that combats were likewise better if the DM could prepare a battlefield with several moving parts. But that generally means the DM needs to be able to prepare that ahead of time. (Of course, you did make sure to include at least some terrain in your example. My experience with no-prep encounters, both as player and (unfortunately) as DM, has been rather less successful. IMX, D&D from 3e on, and probably before, benefits hugely from being prepared.)
2) The most interesting things in most combats are the PCs, then the monsters, and then the terrain. In the chase scene, most of the PCs' abilities cease to be relevant (because they're combat focussed), and the opposition is likewise reduced - with his interest essentially coming from how fast he can move. The terrain effects therefore need to carry a vastly greater portion of the load than in a combat.
(Of course, the game could provide some sort of "monster manual for terrain", allowing chase building in the same way the MM allows for combat building. But such a thing hasn't really been done in the past, and is unlikely to sell terribly well now - meaning that the burden falls to the DM.)
3) I don't really have a problem with them suggesting that staging chases is an "advanced technique", probably best used sparingly, by experienced DMs, and only if they have time to prepare it properly.
I've run several chases, most of them bad. The key to the few good ones was invariably preparation. But YMMV, of course - and, actually, if you do have an example of a really good method for putting together good chases quickly, I would be grateful to see it.