Rules vs Roles

Look at 99% of your RPGs. Compare the combat simulator to the rest of the system, and you'll notice that the book is dominated in terms of size. This is in the psychology of the gamer as well.

I don't know if it was the chicken or the egg, but gamers associate rules with combat, and just don't mix with them well. If you care about the rules, you only care about combat. If you don't care for combat, you very likely loathe codified rules.

This is of particular note in the realm of player advocacy and game design. When a designer wishes for greater participation and direction from the players, then vague & disassociated mechanics will be brought front and center. Even in extant systems, the players who desire greater influence will advocate for the abdication of rules in favour of free-form events and causes.

Part of this is Pavlovian association due to poor design. The skill system of 3.X breaks down at mid-to-high levels, the only social system in D&D that had a chance was 2E's reaction tables, Shadowrun's rigging/hacking have serious flaws, etc. When you wish to do something other than violently disagree with another's right-to-life opinion, the rules have almost invariably failed, leaving Rule Zero to pick up the pieces. I have noticed that when the rules function well, players are more inclined to use them, such as the d20 skill system at low levels.

Gamers who enjoy rules to advance their role's agenda are an isolated breed. Amongst those who enjoy the story beyond combat, they are looked down upon as munchkins, rules lawyers, or gamists (GNS is only a way to insult people). In the eyes of gamers who enshrine the DM's role of narrator, it is an attack on their authority with their own system; rules-lite system giving them even greater power thanks to permission required. And with the gamer who's only engaged when swords are swinging and bullets are flying, their eyes glaze over all the more.

I can only hope to find a system with well designed noncombat rules, the social system specifically being the holy grail of RPGs. 3.X's skill system had its good points, so long as you stick to the first six levels or so, as does Shadowrun once you ignore hacking and rigging.