Yeah - it's a lot easier to reduce scope when you're building a tool for people to do work with. You ask "can they do the job with this tool" and cut anything superfluous for the first release.

What is necessary in a game is much less clear cut.

I feel like the trend towards minimalism in game design is a little misguided. When you're building a world for people to be immersed in little "unnecessary" features, or roadblocks, or redundancies in both setting and gameplay can make that world feel more real and engaging.