Combat as War, Sport, and Spectacle

Hello all!

A couple of days ago, I \posted\ on r/RPGdesign about Combat as War, Sport, and Spectacle. This conversation was linked to a discussion between \Dadi\ and \Questing Beast\.

Long story short, I have a lot of thoughts on how combat works across different systems and how that all ties in to lethality in combat. My thesis is that there are three kinds of combat philosophies across the TTRPGs I've played: combat as war, combat as sport, and combat as spectacle.

Combat as war promises lethality, but also ways to stack combat in your favor or circumvent it entirely - the idea is that combat is usually a last resort, and if you're going to engage, you need* to win.
Combat as sport doesn't promise lethality, but does* expect the players to engage with combat regularly. When the characters have all kinds of combat tools, that encourages the players to exercise them. This promise falls flat when lethality is present - the players aren't given the tools to avoid potentially lethal circumstances.
Combat as spectacle promises lethality much like combat as war, but also encourages the players to interface with combat much like they would in combat as sport. This creates some dissonance - the players are expected to willingly engage with an activity that has lethal consequences. Therefore, the GM is encouraged to pull their punches on lethality so that the players continue* to interface with combat. If lethality is delivered as promised, it teaches the players that they shouldn't engage... but the system may lack the tools to meaningfully circumvent combat.

Each of these philosophies has their own attitudes about what is appropriate to present as a challenge to the PCs, as well as what the appropriate stakes for these encounters should be.

I want to hear from you guys:

* Do you prefer combat as war? Or combat as sport? What are your favorite examples of systems that do what you like well?
* Have you played in or ran games with combat as spectacle? Do you feel like it's tied to specific games or genres?
* What are the best and worst combat encounters you've experience across any system?

I also made a \Youtube video\ about this subject, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts!