I don't doubt there are compromises being made. I guess I'm just a bit surprised that immersion via realistic physics isn't in higher (and competing) demand. It also seems to me there could be a lot of interesting gameplay mechanics to explore there.
There just isn't enough talent to make those games. People who are both good at programming and physics are very rare, and without them you are unlikely to produce programs that can use the physics system in reliable enough ways.
