You're immersed in this world. You're building your character. Yeah, that's called an RPG, brother. That's a roleplaying game.

Yeah, but the real difference is "does stacking boxes allow me to complete objectives in a completely obtuse but somehow there are voice lines referencing the manner of solving this?"

If no, sure, it's an RPG. Imsims cater to the hardcore, box-stacking crowd.

Because, as Civvie11 stated once, immersive sim is a cursed genre

Sure, everyone knows what an RPG is, but they do also have certain expectations that come with them, such as stats and the like that you don't typically find in imsims. Ahah! Maybe that's the difference. Immersive sims are RPGs without the stats.

Both of these games had stats so they were RPGs. I think Thief is more like immersive sim or can be actually called as such since you don't need to build your character at all. The game gives you all the tools and you're on your own. it depends on the player how he wants to play the game, whether going full ghosting without killing or knocking or just backstabbing anyone on sight etc.

Based on that one screenshot it looks like it was made by and for edgy teenagers.

Gloomwood is an awesome game, everyone should check it out