Because this came up a few times: yes, there are games where the player manages NPCs. That's fine.
But what they did is take a game where the player take an active role and made it so AI plays the game for you. They didn't use it in a way I would've been fine with, i.e. making NPCs more interesting and capable. They have it play on your behalf so you don't need to. And the underlying tone here and with anything silicon valley puts out is that productivity is the only purpose of our existence, and playing games is one of those sinful activities that prevents people from being productive.
