The rungs of the ladder are apparently (just going from the posts here in general):
DCS type
ARMA type
BF3
MW
Quake etc
The rules are that all players of the upper rungs must look down upon those in the rungs below them, and call them 'games' etc. Whether even one single aspect of those 'games' is actually useful or would be nice to have is irrelevant.
:)
Seriously though, any 'game' as they stand now will run into engine limitations once they step outside their chosen specialty. ARMA is taking flak here because modders always run into engine limitations, but the fact is that it was always an infantry centric game, and it actually does a decent job of creating a world that a person can walk around in (Day Z uses that world, without actually changing much at all when you think about it). For an infantry world, it's pretty big actually. So they've packed in a lot of vehicles as well - not switch flicking simulations, but ok if you watch them move about. If you want to see massive engine limitations, or just a generally crap world, try walking around in the DCS world as a soldier. Imagine having an infantry battle now - staring at each other across a flat, almost featureless polygon isn't my idea of cool. Tank vs infantry combat in Steel Beasts runs into the same problem - the crunchies get mown down since there is generally zero cover, unlike the real world, where even a 20cm depression can do wonders for a soldier, something that ARMA can do an OK (not always brilliant) job of. When Combined Arms comes out we'll be able to drive tanks - compare that to Steel Beasts and I'm sure you'll find that SB is much a much more realistic tank sim (including the 'switch flicking' part) since that was always it's primary focus, unlike DCS.
So it's pointless knocking ARMA - that would be like ARMA players knocking DCS because 'it's terrible once you step out the cockpit and lay in the grass' (and it is - but that's not the point of it!) ARMA gets so many comparisons because that is the game that really opens your eyes to how close we can come to a first person simulator - one where you can move around as a human, not as a 'platform' (aircraft, tank, sub etc).
Edit to add: Just to clarify, I was joking when I was describing the 'rungs' above - I play (or at least have tried to play) all of them actually, some more than others (clue - it must be more realistic) - it just seemed like some people get a bit snobbish when describing what they believe are 'lesser' games :)