City builder: major construction projects take time, from planning to construction. Construction itself can be very disruptive, causing local negative effects and necessitating temporary arrangements. Another aspect is that developments that were once nice and shiny grow old and withered. In a long running city you should be able to recognize how different areas are from different eras, eventually some stuff becoming "historic" and valued for that reason.
RPG: In many games apocalypse patiently waits while our hero rescues every kitten from a tree and clears every basement from spiders. That makes decisions in game feel less weighty because often there is no cost for doing things. I would want to see a game where you'd really need to weigh if things are worth doing, not just in regards to players time but also in regards to in-game time. Tyranny (by Obsidian) was one game that kinda pretended to have this, but it was pretty weak illusion in practice.