Thank you for this. (If you don't have a PDF of Faggots and Their Friends, it's available in various spots online. The surviving author - I forget which - gave his blessing for it to be shared. He was delighted that people still enjoyed it.)
I've run into the same thing in sims, and in a lot of other games where I am told they are focusing on "realism" and that's why there are no instructions or log of activities & goals, because in the "real world" nobody tells you what to do or reminds you what you have done.
(Bitch in the Real World I can call a friend who's not involved and ask for advice. I can sue the shop that sells poison mixed in with its food. I can use a screwdriver or wrench or a book to break a window; I don't have to find The Rock first. I can label the pockets in my backpack so I remember what I put in which spot. I can carry a notebook and make checklists of tasks.)
But erm. "Realism" was not the point of the rant. "Changing the game conditions" was. Life-sim games have built-in assumptions about how relationships work. Politics-sim games have built-in assumptions on how business and politics work. It's not even "You can't challenge them." You can't hint at the possibility of challenging them; it'd be like trying to add romance options to an action platformer. You can maaaaybe throw in a mod to make it look like that's what's happening - but there is no, "flirt with Bowser, go on some dates, maybe get married, and 'win' by talking him into releasing the princess."
Nobody expects (or really wants) that in their platformers. It's hard to tell people that sim games are just as limited, just as constrained: That they don't have "realism" but "a simulation of a particular set of functions, and stuff outside of those isn't allowed to exist."
I give F&F a pass on not seeing "after" the revolutions. Queer marriage wasn't on anyone's radar; the goal was "let's make it illegal to arrest and maybe kill gay people just for existing." And for all that: It's a glorious message of "hey, when everything sucks, remember we've been through worse, and we'll get through this together. When you feel pain, fall into your brothers' love.