In the days before TV etc, what was the alternative? Sitting there with their minds blank? It seems obvious that pretend play helps them develop their minds and capabilities.
I always thought of dreams as being a lot of reprocessing and reinterpreting.
Either way, watching kids do this (which is fascinating and I will miss it when she grows out of it) makes me wonder why anyone would question the value of it. Just like physical play (running jumping climbing throwing etc) will prepare you for when you need it, such as when you need to hunt for food or avoid being hunted.
I once heard an account, the gist of which was, the man who first wrote the [authoritative] book on play behavior in different animals was unable to get tenure.
This was in the context of noting that play in general had been undervalued as a subject.
That sounds insane.
He did teach me to how to brew beer though, so his Phd wasn’t a total loss for us kids.
I think "externalize their imaginations into real what if this happens scenarios" is pretty much what I was saying, although maybe I am tying it a bit more to why it is useful: i.e. practicing for real things that could happen, so they will be able to handle those situations better than if they had never considered such possibilities previously.