When we played, there was lot of room for improvisation, as long as we could convince GM what we are attempting makes sense. We were much more active and creative when we knew we can do whatever we want.
That was actually something I also should've mentioned; "Rules light" systems are suffering to run as a GM too. It's because each edge case is something they have to kludge a fix for since the design principle of stuff like this is "fuck it, the GM will fix it for the players". These systems are lazy, and expect the players to fix their unfinished shit for them.
It also highlights the other issue in this same sentence: trying to turn these games collaborative. It means the players have an incentive to bully the GM into allowing things they otherwise could either clarify or shut down in a crunchier system.
In something like Pathfinder 2e, you had a far wider selection of skills and abilities you could draw on that would not require a debate or discussion to use for a problem. Same with Vampire. Same with Call of Cthulhu.
I suspect Adam's problem is the fact that you have to convince the GM to let you do things, as opposed to stating that you're attempting to do something and the system mediating the results.
This in a nutshell. "Rules Light" systems are bullshit scams that in reality have the DM do doubleshifts fixing the scam company's own slop to turn it playable by essentially solidifying the edge cases and clarifying how rulings work.
Fun fact: did you know DnD 5e didn't even have ideas on how to use hirelings until a third party module clarified that? That's the mindset of modern "designers".
If GM threw hard enough situation, players can end up burning through their stress like no tomorrow, or just die if they are forced to perform enough desperate actions. We had something like this already, and it was pretty close thanks to bad rolls.
"If".
That actually proves my point; your GM had to essentially and forcefully try to kill you, since it was the only way to actually get something close to approaching a threat. It's also why I do rate the system higher than PBTA, where it's even harder to actually make something threatening unless you have the party roll.
There'd be no ifs, ands, or buts if this was an ST or Chaosium system in effect, since there's actual and finer ways to modulate and make things threatening in those.
