I prefer to sacrifice realism to gain freedom and fun.
Though as for your question, it really depends on definition of fun. If fun could be achieved by realistic mechanics, then why not apply realism there?
Yeah definitely. I think “fun” is probably too broad to have one answer anyway. For some people the fun is literally learning and mastering a ridiculously realistic system, while for others that would be awful 😭
I suppose realism is just another tool really. If it adds something to the experience, use it. If it starts restricting the player without adding anything interesting, sacrifice it.