I’ve been following this discussion and I’m not sure dice rolls vs immersion is really the problem. I think the problem is that losing isn’t satisfying.
We like our characters to win (this is a generalization, not pointed at a specific person/group). We have an idea in our mind of who our characters are. And we like them to succeed. We do. We like that. It’s satisfying for our character to beat up the other side - so satisfying that we aim toward it with plotted RP in most cases.
I was part of a large RP event a few expacs back where we lost. And the majority of the RPers were very dissatisfied with the outcome. Very dissatisfied was an understatement - there were rude whispers and complaints about it because some of the players couldn’t conceive that there could even be a different outcome. It didn’t matter that failing gave them a chance for their characters to experience loss and growth. A lot of them were furious and I’m sure the others were disgruntled at the very least.
If you DM a lot of RP in various games, you’ll see that across the board. Players don’t like to retreat. They don’t like to lose. They will min-max their stats so that the stats don’t necessarily reflect the character they’re playing, but that they’ll win every roll. We want to win that much.
My personal feeling is that even if our characters have done something 1000x, that doesn’t mean they can’t fail at it. And even if the dice roll indicates that they failed, there are different levels of failure. Maybe we missed because our bowstring snapped. Maybe the target moved at the last moment. Maybe we tripped over some roots. Maybe our shot glanced off their armor and did no real damage, but it still hit. And even if it’s a crit fail and we accidentally snap our bow line into our face, or our axe swing misses the enemy and hits a nearby ally, it should occasionally happen.
We just saw Khadgar lose. We’ve seen Varian, Tirion, Vol’jin and others lose. Big heroes lose sometimes. When they do, it pulls at our heartstrings - which is what it’s supposed to do. And then our characters should want vengeance. Or justice. Or to study harder, train harder, work on getting a better weapon, put together a better plan, or whatever RP comes from losing. A loss of a roll can become a new RP experience.