The problem with survival games is that they lack the social consequences that tend to have a significant implication within real world, human ecology.
It breaks down when you, the people you play with, and the people you kill are essentially anonymous, and the action itself lacks a significant consequence. Behaviour becomes unrepresentative of the environment the game attempts to replicate. People torturing others because there is no consequence, from either their peers, the environment, or the people they torture.
It's a bit ironic really that these survival simulators fail to provide systems intent on facilitating the development of real world ecological systems, because it causes player behaviour to be, unrealistic, unusual and unenjoyable for others they affect.
As a result, these games end up missing many of the meaningful components that would underpin real world survival. Is it a problem? I don't know, but it doesn't make for a very fun gameplay experience for me, most of the time. I can see how the games would be fun if I could guarantee I could play with people I knew already, or could trust, but that's not been my experience.