He never said he wanted to do a "traditional tabletop game" in the sense of an adventure beginning from the bottom of the power structure, only cutting out the first half (what would be wrong with that anyway, provided the game treated the second half well?) but rather a completely different type of game, revolving around the politics of the tribes.
Not as straightforward as that, no. But he did talk about ditching the traditional zero-to-hero stuff. If I read him correctly, the reason would be to skip past the fetch-questian grind that are pretty much the totality of CRPGs, and instead start at the point where CRPGs usually end.
There would be no point in a separate adventuring first half for the sake of having one, after which the game would begin "for real", switching to different mechanics for the second half. Civilization and KoDP don't start you out as a lonely peasant either, and wouldn't benefit from doing so.
What I was apparently failing somewhat to rant about in the post you quoted, is that the two halves shouldn't be separate things and shouldn't have separate mechanics.
I'll stuff Mr.Z's mouth full of words for a bit, and hope I don't do it unfairly, but..
The zero-to-hero stuff - the totality of CRPGs, generally speaking - is increasingly stale to him, because it's growing hard for him to ignore that he only has agency within the framework of the quest he's playing, despite the fact there's a whole setting sitting right there beyond the invisible cage of the quest structure. Because he cannot define his character(s) beyond the generally few and often purely cosmetic options the quest structure occasionally affords him. And because when he's finally run to the end of the quest structure rails and awarded a place in the power structure of the setting - or at least freedom from the invisible quest cage - he gets a face full of Credits Screen (sometimes figuratively, but same fucking thing) instead the tools to play in and with the setting.
What my above rant was supposed to be about, is that there's no fucking reason to lock the player into a quest structure cage until he's level gazillion, and then end the game. And that there's no fucking reason not to allow the player to play with the the setting of the game until he's level gazillion and has ported his CRPG end game save into a strategy game.
It's a nonsense divide and it should have died in a fire 30 years ago.
There obviously are tabletop games that are more about established power structures anyway (though I don't know what all this has to do with a Fallout video game). .
I guess BECMI D&D is kind of the answer to both.
It came in 5 boxed sets, covering levels of play from Basic to Immortal. Or from zero to godhood, if you prefer. The first box of stuff introduced the system, character creation and provided tools for playing games of incompetent nobodies just turned adventurer. The second box greatly expanded the system, and provided tools for campaign play and for transforming characters from nobodies to nobles, complete with armies, castles and similar shit. The last boxed set was aimed at characters for whom the world itself was no longer enough.
In most ways that matter, this is what both tabletop and computer RPGs grew out of. Fallout too. The expectations we have of CRPGs are - at least to a pretty significant extent - informed by traditional TTRPGs.
Though perhaps you and Mr.Z's CRPG expectations are less informed by traditional TTRPGs than mine. Because to me, going: "instead of implementing the solution to the annoying shit in CRPGs, in actual CRPGs, let's make strategy games instead." Is such a mental geargrinding shift I couldn't even reaction-rant comprehensible.
Don't get me wrong, I can kind of appreciate why the both of you would think strategy games instead. Several really damn good ones are all about playing with dynamic, interactive world and faction simulations - and KoDP in particular is really damn RPG-like (unsurprisingly, considering it's part of the TTRPG RuneQuest's Glorantha setting).
can't be more Illustrious than Codexian God Emperor.