Go play Morrowind and come back and say that it’s a simulationist immersion game again.
It is now but it’s roots were deep in RPG stats beforehand.
My first TES game was Arena. I’m familiar with the way it used to be (and still wish we had Thaumaturgy and Mysticism). I still think those games were simulationist immersion games. No other series would let you essentially live a life as a burglar in a fantasy world. I don’t think being simulationist immersion games precludes them from having stats. I do think it means they wouldn’t really be the same if they were turn-based (which is what I was talking about).
Edit: when this posted I saw that I typed “real time” instead of turn-based in my last comment. So I guess I did indicate I wanted turn-based combat, but this was a mistake.