Artificial mechanics are useful because they allow devs to tame the wild unpredictable madness of games. Natural mechanics force devs to dip into their insanity and live among the chaos. Become the chaos.
But that's not the only reason why artificial & stat driven mechanics are go-to solutions for various problems like atk balancing. They synergize with the practical & business sides of gamedev which encourages the creation of clear, reproducible best practices.
Natural mechanics need the same. They don't synergize as well and are very unique to particular games, so trying to create general best practices is extra tricky. But this is why I think it's especially important for developers to look back at their game development and try to figure out various natural rules of thumb for game design. Then they need to make them accessible. That way new designers won't have to reinvent the wheel every time or get burned when trying to beef up their move properties.
Basically the conclusion is that I'm going to try to make an effort to talk about my own natural balancing (after making sure it works (or doesn't!) meaning released games!) and see if I can spread them around. Maybe devs who are struggling with the same shit I am will see it and be able to use my fixes or avoid my pitfalls. And if you're a gamedev, I encourage you to do the same. That one time when just giving enemies a slightly different movement pattern solved a busted player attack hitbox you were struggling with for days or weeks? Talk about it, and try to find something reproducible! You coulda solved it with a meter or cooldown or resistances but you didn't, talk about that shit!
I shouldn't have needed to do original research to figure out something as natural, fundamental as beat em up enemy movement mechanics, and yet here we are.