I absolutely miss this era of gaming, when mechanics and genres weren't yet fully set in stone and the different layers of games interacted in creative ways. I don't think there's a collective hole in the memory of that era, though. These games are rightfully considered classics, whether they worked well (like Pirates!) or were a bit of a mess (like Covert Action).

Personally, I'd love to see this type of game design revived, with modern quality-of-life sensibilities and a better understanding of game mechanics. In fact, shameless plug: for the past four years, I've been building Trucker 2056 (https://trucker2056.com/), a game very heavily inspired by the early MicroProse/Origin games and aimed specifically at the crowd who loved (and still loves) the games of that era.