Why Are Armies So Abstracted?

I want my Starship Troopers!

from GalCiv2 Forums
I asked this question in the DA Forum but I want to repeat it here, in much briefer form, in a more general Forum.  Why do most all the Strategic Space games, including Galactic Civ II, which is a wonderful game, spend so much tiem and detail on ship to ship combat but make the ground combat so abstract and brief?  Could we not at least have distinct army units, that remain in existence until eliminated in combat or disbanded?  Units that can be upgraded, gain experience, be named ect.?  Would this not add some extra excitement and color to the game?  What is it that Space game designers have against ground combat?  Thanks.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess the Developers have to do a trade-off and given that scenarios of this type tend to rely on the Space race etc they feel that the Ground Combat is the thing that has to give

Interestingly there was a similar but inverse argument in the Total war series which concentrated on the land battles and abstracted the sea ones...until the next installment that has paid very close attention to this as well

Makes you feel that they will probably get round to it in GalCiv III or something