More Words, Deeper Hole

I think I agree with you about games that work to increase fun; I haven't seen any mechanics that I actually enjoy. (Okay, the Hero Games limitations and the ICONS challenges go a little way to providing hooks, but in neither case are you required to use them; you can go elsewhere if desire takes you.)

My inclination to tactical combat is quite different from yours. I found D&D4E deadly dull. What might have been an interpersonal thing became, in challenges, an exercise in dice throwing. And I was in a bad place, so I didn't particularly want to learn another set of fiddly rules, so the tactical aspects did not appeal to me. (I did not care about mastery.)

MHR has, somewhere in it, a game that rewards interesting tactical choices, but by only giving a few mechanical options, they end up all being the same, and confusingly so. ("Is that an asset? Or a resource? The heck with it, I'll hit him. Oh, he's protected by GM fiat.") I have the same problem with PDQ: I very much liked the setting in Jaws of the Six Serpents and the freedom implied by the casual rules set appealed to me, but it never came to fruition.

And thinking of it that way, maybe what I want to try is Savage Worlds. (Or not.)

There's a middle ground between "here are rules for combat; make everything else up" and "Here's a lot of dice hoohah that promises to increase your enjoyment but will instead suck the colour out of everything." I wish I could find it, though it might be a Pepsi sweetness problem.