What kind of stories do you try to tell?
Let's start off with a question (borrowed from an issue of Pyramid magazine).
The heroes have uncovered a nefarious plot, with the dastardly deed to occur at midnight that night. Time is running out for them to stop it, but they have unknowingly chosen a means of transportation that won't get them there in time.
Which would you rather see happen more often in your stories:
A) Have things be fudged so that the heroes are able to show up in time to confront the evil-doer before he can pull off his plan (perhaps the evil henchmen have caused some delays).
B) The evil-doer executes his plan at midnight while the heroes are waiting for the drawbridge to close so they can cross the river.
Think about this as long as you'd like - this post will still be here when you're done. 
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The first (option A) is a more Cinematic story. In that context, it's about Heroes fighting Villains, so fudging things to make that sort of thing happen is appropriate for the genre. The second (option B) is more of a Simulation. The heroes are only human, and so must deal with their failures.
Neither style is objectively better than the other - it's a matter of taste. Occasional failures can make a Cinematic story more interesting, upping the stakes of a larger plot and giving characters additional motivation.
In terms of the games themselves, different RPGs deal with the Cinematic vs. Simulation scale in different fashions. Some include mechanics for the occasional flash of cinematic action in the middle of its hard-hitting and detailed simulation of combat. Other games tend to have a more cinematic baseline to their mechanics. Those mechanics often influence the style of story being told. Cinematic mechanics generally lend themselves to Cinematic stories, and likewise for Simulation mechanics.
Where an RPG falls along the Cinematic-to-Simulation spectrum is frequently defined by its genre. If it's attempting to emulate a TV show or a movie, it's going to be closer to the Cinematic end. If it's trying to present itself as a "hard" science-fiction setting, it's probably going to be more on the Simulation end of things. This is not to say that Cinematic games don't (or can't) have complex mechanics, nor that games attempting to be a Simulation can't have abstracted mechanics. It is the type of event that those mechanics are attempting to portray.
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Through its first three(-ish) editions, D&D has had something of a split personality with respect to the Cinematic-Simulation spectrum. Certain elements are decidedly cinematic (powerful magics, abstract and large hit point totals) yet others end up being more of an attempt to simulate the "real world" (what happens if you set off a fireball in a 10'x10' room, a weapon's effectiveness being affected by what type of armor the target is wearing).
When D&D's 3rd edition came out in 2000, it still suffered from its split-personality disorder. Weapon effectiveness was represented by a damage type (e.g. bludgeoning) and certain monsters were resistant (or even immune) to certain damage types (in some cases, immune to the Rogue's sneak attack damage). Skills were based around a point-based system. Magic, on the whole, remained fantastical. Weapon-wielding classes were, generally, pinned down by the "real world".
4th Edition solidly shifted over to the Cinematic end of the spectrum. Monsters that were Minions with only one hit point; Martial characters that broke free of the simulation chains they had been shackled with; a Martial healer. It definitively painted a picture of the world as being in a movie (or TV show, or a comic book), rather than the jumbled together picture presented by previous editions. That second personality was much diminished, perhaps even gone.
Looking at the class designs for the Essentials Fighter and Rogue, given that the Martial classes have been reduced back to being based around simple, boost-able attacks it begins to feel like someone cast resurrection on that second personality. I'm guessing the Wizard convinced the Cleric to do it. 
