Some of you old folk may remember a discussion of this a few years ago. I came across this in the most recent issue of Battles! Magazine. (great magazine, with a small board wargame, published in France. Current issue has a review of HPS's Squad Battles: Dien Bien Phu)
I still find it relevant. The discussion had to do more with how you classify your approach to games.
If the left of the horizontal axis is -10 and the right is 10 and the top of the vertical axis is 10 and the bottom is -10, where would you put your <i>'sweet spot'</i>?
Personally I'd say -5 (<b>moderately competitive </b>and that has grown over the years - I used to not care if a scenario was 'balanced'), 4 (<b> somewhat realistic </b> - playable game systems are going to be by their nature abstract.)