@givemersspls
It's less that they imitated SAO's use of game mechanics and more that they imitated the sentiment SAO (or atleast early SAO) had towards protagonists which makes game mechanics useful. The idea of game mechanics in the form of rpg stats itself is just a shorthand to express ability which may be difficult to convey (or that they are too lazy to convey as you said) . It's an abbreviation of actual actions, skill, or abilities. Because of that it goes hand in hand with stories where they want just hand the mc power without it being based on any actual skill or knowledge. It's really the way to go if you want a bs self-insert talent-less ordinary mc who wins all their fights because "My numbers are bigger than yours!"
on a side note, ever see MUDs that use verbal descriptions instead of stats and points of damage? It's cools and more engaging but it's honestly confusing. I think in Lost Souls, if you attack using the elements temporal, chaos,order, entropy, and cutting you get something like "X was torn to shreds and evaporated by the power of your bureaucracy!" or something like that. Idk, it's been a long time and I've seen a lot of MUDs but thats probably it. Yeah, numbers are easier, even if really plain and boring.
