Thomas Shey
Legend
What granularity? A short person has an easier time finding things to hide behind than a tall person, while the tall person can reach things more easily and might even get over certain obstacles a little easier. There is no formula being used to calculate numerical bonuses by the foot, here.
But it does require you to know--or more likely decide on the fly--that someone six foot tall couldn't reach up onto the shelf, where someone seven could. I couldn't even begin to tell you in most games whether that would be true in a given case or not, because I don't list the height of every shelf everyone might ever run into.
(And if so, is 6'6" enough? How about 6'8" if they stretch? How about someone who's a little shorter if you count to their head top, but is long in the limb?)
It's really weird to make these sorts of assumptions rather than just asking for clarification.
There is no age of anything, anymore. No trend or movement will ever go away, ever again, unless it is fully and truly rejected by the whole of society. Which isn't likely. Even disco isn't actually dead, anymore. My friends who actually like being in a crowd and dancing with strangers went to a disco show in fall 2019. It was packed. So no, the "age of simulationism", if such a thing ever existed in a meaningful sense, is not over.
But more importantly, this particular thing has lttle at all to do with simulationism, and everything to do with character distinction. Any simulationism is incidental, like the relationship between strength and jumping in 5e, but more loosely defined.
Eh. I don't think you can entirely unplug simulationist concerns from something as subtle and otherwise trivial as whether a foot of difference in height will matter in reaching a shelf. I've seen some people who are fussy about ability to define their characters, but who still likely couldn't tell you if their character was right or left handed, because it wasn't in an area they'd care about, and plenty of others who might well be fussy about the height of their character but whom would never expect it to make any practical difference in a game whatsoever.