Super interesting discussion here!

I want to add my two cents talking about two games that are very dear to me:

At the moment I’m playing Dogs in the Vineyard with my group. In DitV when you put forward your two dice for the raise, you need to describe what you are doing, because otherwise the other players don’t know how they can see it. I often ask “ok, but what are you doing exactly? What do I have to do if I take the blow?
It’s a bit different than with traits (which are what we are mainly talking about here), but it’s an important interaction between “crunch” and “fluff”

The other game that does something similar is Kagematsu: first, you just can’t roll dice, you need to reach a point where the player of Kagematsu feels you could earn that display of affection you are going for. Then, it’s the dice that tell you if you get or don’t get that display of affection, but how you do it is important, not only for your own satisfaction (is it a forced kiss? is it passionate? is it cold and stiff? is it tender and lovely? fierce? angry?), but also because that determines if you get Love or Pity from Kagematsu.
And another mechanic I find brilliant are the acts of desperation: mechanically, you can just grab dice and roll. But the cost you pay is 100% “fluff”, but boy, does it hurt! Are you willing to threaten Kagematsu for that kiss? Are you insulting him to get a gift?
I think Kagematsu is one of the games that best shows how important “fluff” can be 😀

Talking about the main topic again, I’m a player who tries to visualize what is happening, and I often ask “ok, but how does it look like?”, even when I’m not the GM. I like to ask that not only because sometimes it’s not clear, but also because often it makes people really think about their character: maybe the characters do something the players didn’t expect them to do, or maybe the players realize they actually don’t want the character to do it.

This also makes me think of Apocalypse World’s “to do it, do it”: you can’t just roll the dice, you need to say what your character does to activate a move. (also, if you do it, do it, you can’t say you do something that activates a move without then actually rolling the dice, take responsibility of your actions! :D)

I also want to reply to Micah Shaeffer about taking away the character sheets: while I can understand the benefits, I would find it difficult and less satisfying to play without all the traits of my character at hand. If you just asked me to tell you how my character does something, without the sheet at hand, I’d prbably pull off a dull description. I love the mechanic of traits*, because they are a great help to go from an idea of a character to implementation: I can imagine my character being big and strong, but if it never shows in fiction, it’s a quirk my character has only in my head, it has no meaning. If I have the trait “big and strong”, then I’m encouraged to include it in the fiction, to describe how being big and strong helps my character do things, or how it goes into his way.

* as in DitV or Primetime Adventures, i.e. a descriptive bit about your character that you can include into the fiction to have mechanical bonuses