The problem with a lot of sophisticated solutions is that they tend to resemble very, very blunt solutions in practice. If you're not calculating an empire's mineral output by hand, whether they're running a successful economy or being handed minerals is largely opaque. If you're not privy to internal decisionmaking processes, whether they're holding intense war councils or wandering their fleet into the closest enemy territory is largely opaque.
Hell, even a lot of the complexity we do have kinda blends into the background most of the time. When was the last time you looked at two fleets closing for battle and thought to yourself "Aha, but that's only part of the story! There are fifty ships in this battle, each with their own loadouts, AI, and fortune! Hundreds or thousands of actions and decisions and turns of fate will decide the fine nuances of this engagement!"
Yeah, probably never. Bigger fleet power wins. Winner takes some casualties and ship damage, loser takes more. They could have abstracted that even further and it wouldn't have mattered a great deal. Likewise, "better AI" sounds great on paper, but it's not really the point most of the time, and without the infrastructure to make those results meaningful AND apparent, doesn't really do anything you can't gain by dumping numbers somewhere.