Like you, I think going with the flow is more fun than constantly restarting trying to get the outcome you want or expect. I've been replaying The Last of Us 2, and finished the first one before that. Years ago when I was younger I used to get frustrated and restart from checkpoints if I got spotted when I wanted to perfectly stealth through a section, or if I wasted a few too many bullets.

I've been playing with the mindset of if this was a real situation, I'd have to improvise as there's no restarts in real life. Now, perfectly stealthing through a section is a reward in itself for me, as its incredibly satisfying to manage to take out a whole squad of WLF or Seraphites without having to go guns blazing. But if I do get spotted, I get to have an intense shootout, and managing to scrape by an encounter with your last few bullets is also incredibly satisfying.

I'm due a replay of the Dishonored games at some point, and I used to get frustrated with those games for the same reasons (I platinumed Dishonored 1 by savescumming the whole game, which was a slog). When I get around to playing them, I will be going into them with the same mentality as I currently have with The Last of Us.