Why do some RPGs dangle the "carrot" in this way?

[DragoFireheart]

Rpgs are pretty retarded games. In a proper tactical game, your enemies should have access to the same items and abilities as you do. The "doesn't scale to your level" is potentially stupid shit in a game that has proper tactical gameplay. Why would you want to fight trash mobs or enemies that resort you to using overpowered abilities? It has to be a battle on equal terms. Either that, or your tactics should make the difference, not your items and spells. This is why those games are so shit and nonsense : rpgs are bastardized versions of tactical games. The character-building elements override the strategy ones. I'll have to write this up proprely some other time because this isn't the right thread for it

I'd be interested in seeing it as it seem a lot of Strategy games use elements of RPGs, and vice versa.

What elements of RPGs?

Sometimes individual units have "stats" and "damage-range". Warcraft 1 is an example. I guess you could say that stats don't make an RPG, but RPGs come to mind when I think about stats and damage-ranges.