I a complex issue. Games like this did not existed in the 8 bits era. In the 8 bits era most games existed to challenge you. Very few games existed to entertain you, or to chill.
The bigger influencer of the era was the arcade machines, that where coin operated, so the business model was very time limited, have the player enjoy the game, but also make the game short, so the next person can use the cabinet.
With the PC game world we started to see games like Maxis simulators that where “learn how the world work with a model” and full RPG games where you “adopt a role and live adventures.”
In japan and that area of the world, the RPG’s required many hours of grinding and maybe challenging.
In time we had things like german Farm Simulators and Korean MMO’s.
I like to think, but I have no base, that is a cultural based things. That in some cultures they like their games to feel like work.
I am anti work. I am lazy, inventor and artist. About the 3 most anti-work things that exist. If you are lazy, you work hard to work less. If you are inventor, you create robots so you don’t have to work yourself. If you are artist, you know quality is disconnected with productivity, in art don’t matter if you took 2 seconds to made it or 2 years, only if is good. In art you put 2 years of work to be able to make something in 2 seconds.
Not everyone is like me. For some people more work = better. For some people more work= more reward. The idea of “don’t work harder, work smarter” don’t pass for their head. For some people (most people) work define their existence, they will probably suicide themselves if you give them 30 million dollars, because will remove the reason of their existence (work).
So I think some games feel like work, because work is such a important part of people lives that they literally can’t live withouth.