I'm totally against the "harder better faster stronger", there are a lot of titles than don't use that and I still love them(a lot of them more than those that use that). And I'm not only talking of Sport.
Slam Dunk is a good example, though the author gave the excuse of ending the manga because he couldn't imagine himself doing a better game(But a lot later he said that he would be interested in continuing Slam Dunk if he ever got the time, so where the can't do better games went? Did he found a way to make better games, or now he doesn't care?).
One Piece is also one, though a lot of people like to hate arcs where the enemy is not Stronger(but majority of these people is stupid).
I could also talk about Hajime no Ippo, Ace of Diamond, Area no Kishi, Ahiru no Sora and Baby Steps but unfortunately I'm only in the beginning of them so can't really say that they don't have that "philosophy" :S, but they are mangas super popular, pretty close to the real thing(for what I've seen and heard about them) and they have respectively 109, 44, 41, 39, 33 volumes right now. They are all still ongoing too.
In the end for me it looks likes the "harder better faster stronger" titles are the ones that get a lot of problems, majorly things getting ridiculous as they go along and the ones where is harder to keep things interesting.
About real life and Manga games comparison being useful. I think it is.
While the manga gives the chance to make use a more focused view in the players and their actions in a dramatic way. The flow of the game and events is normally pretty much like in real life. The parts that excite a watcher in a real game is pretty much the things that excite the reader of a sport manga. Even though, as I already said, in the manga you have a more personal and dramatic view of the players and actions.
Of course there are some exceptions, like Kuroko no Basket, where it seems they are doing everything except playing in a real 5 vs 5 basketball game. And I'm not talking of the super powers they have. In Kuroko majority of games is just 1 vs 1, even when it shows every players of both teams it seems like it is 5 groups of 1 vs 1, and normally has a turn based feeling to it where the turns are: "the other team having the upper hand and the focused team trying to destroy that upper hand".
But in the end you're just getting excited by most of the things that happen in a real life 1 Vs 1 game, discarding the flashiness of the powers of course.