Thomas Shey
Legend
But don't all fictional mechanisms start with some goal of "how can I make this fit"? People don't just say "magic works this way for my novel" for abstract reasons. It's "magic works this way because it works better for my plot and world building." Star Trek had teleporters because it was cheaper, not because there was some over-arching logic.
There's a big difference between "It works better for my world building" (which is almost the definition of simulation) and "It works better in play" however. The latter is pretty much the textbook for a gamist design decision, which is why I claim that's how D&D magic started out. Same with almost all its mechanical decisions.