I myself don't find any appreciable difference between "calling it" and fudging. In both cases the DM is just choosing to no longer play the board game as per the rules of said game. So one isn't any better or worse than the other to me.
This came up with someone else, but they asked not to engage further, so I did not reply.
The difference to me is that you "call" the fight openly, as opposed to fudging the damage so it's "officially" over. That is, "calling" the fight, as I would term it, looks like this (with some RP embellishments)....
Bob/Theophilius: "That's...eighteen damage from that fireball."
DM: "Ooh, and all four of them failed their saves."
[Checks their HP, sees the one furthest away still has enough left to last a round or two of hopeless fighting.] "Three go down outright. This last guy has no hope of survival. Tell me, Garka, do you spare him or cut him down like a mangy cur?"
Anne/Garka: "Oh you KNOW I'm going to relish ending that jerks sorry existence."
DM: "Any objections? Charity, I know you're trying to show Garka the value of mercy."
Chuck/Charity: "I try to speak out, but Garka is too fast for me. I sigh, but don't say anything yet."
While fudging would look like this (with similar RP embellishments)....
Bob/Theophilius: "That's...eighteen damage from that fireball."
DM: "Ooh, and all four of them failed their saves.
[Checks their HP, sees the one furthest away still has enough left to last a round or two of hopeless fighting.] "That's done it! All the bandits are defeated. Tell me, Garka, how do you feel about being upstaged by Theo?"
Anne/Garka: "It's...mixed. I've always thought Theo was soft. Bathrobe man. But you can't argue with results, and 'burnt four bandits to a crisp' is about as clear of a result as you can get! I slap him on the back." [
IC voice] "Big fires for a soft man! Maybe Gorka wrong about Theo!"
The latter is fudging, because it is hidden from the players. The former is calling the fight, because it is clear that they COULD play out the rest of the fight, the DM is openly stating that it's a hopeless thing and the players can just move on without having to go through the hassle. It is very specifically the NON secret nature of "calling the fight" that makes it not fudging.
Likewise, if I were to remove death as a consequence, I do not need to fudge in order to do it. If a PC drops to 0 HP, I don't have to KILL them. That's perfectly within my power to, y'know, just...not do. Players who fail three death saves (or whatever) wouldn't lose their characters, they would just be captured or grievously wounded or the like, and the party would have to deal with the consequences thereof. Like, let's say my current group managed to have one of their number """die""" in a combat, but the party pulls them out of the fray and escapes. Now we have a serious issue: that character is grievously injured and cannot help in combat. The party could wait, allowing the character time to heal, but that would let their many opponents advance their plans unimpeded. They could try to hire a mercenary to temporarily replace that person (player must build a temporary second character, an option I KNOW would please at least one of my players.) They could pay a lot of money to get fancy magical healing—possibly exhausting resources that could have been put to more productive use. They could do a quick adventure (with wounded PC either "fighting in spirit" as 13A puts it, or playing a temp merc) to get alchemy supplies to make an unusually potent healing potion—a risky choice, since it could involve delays, more injuries, or unforeseen expenses, but it could also get them everything they want in a short time. Etc. That injury still hurts, still affects the future and might be a critical turning point in the story, but it doesn't kill the character, and I didn't have to do any secret manipulation of the die rolls or statistics.
Now, as I mentioned previously, I do not (necessarily) completely prevent the possibility of death. No PCs have died in my game, so it hasn't been tested, but I have no problem killing a PC if it would not make sense to do otherwise. But "your character died" would never mean "you
must roll up a new character" at my table. The player's choice would determine that. Do they get some solo adventures on the far side? Do they wake up alive and well in an unfamiliar place? Perhaps they get a strange vision and are instantly revived...but now have a mysterious mark on them. Maybe they pull a Gandalf the White and get officially Sent Back because Their Mission Is Not Finished. All of these are potential ways to avoid having to eliminate the character, and not a single one of them requires me to pretend the character did not drop to 0 HP and die.