And why is that a problem if it works? What if I told you that games also don't simulate each atom individually?

Absolutely not a problem, in fact, I enjoy this. But asking game developers for "discipline" is akin to asking frontend developers for forward compatibility - simply not in their culture.

Meanwhile I love the "trains as hats" hack.

I love it too, but what game developers never have, never will and probably even never should — is discipline