The Big Model is a model, and like all models, is a flawed version of the real. The break point between Right To Dream or Simulationism and Narrativism always seems to be one of those points where the model gets most stressed. The fact that Hero Wars includes an explicit premise - the Hero Wars and particularly the idea that 'The Old World is Over...' and the question of how you make the new is what led Ron Edwards to see it as intrinsically narrativist. Whereas 'emulating Greg's stories', Robin's expressed goal for HW, is seen as simulationist. So confusion between author and critic already.
Given that the model is a tool and that it ends up lumping The Dying Earth, HeroQuest 2 and MRQ2 into the same bucket, I think it is too broken to be useful in the long run.
The distinction, which Jeff often talks about, between rpgs that descend from wargames and have heavily tactical elements, and those that descend from "let's pretend" and don't may actually be much more useful. For my part the latter are 'story games' which is a useful distinction.
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