Is there a meaningful distinction to be made between the system and the content?

[Lord Raziere]

Interested in what you think the design philosophy of GURPS is, while we’re on the subject. I’m really not familiar with it but from what I understand it has a reputation for extreme, exacting simulationism. Do you think that’s deserved?

GURPS 4e has three separate books for what kind of tech level you can set your campaign in, a fourth purely for biotech, a fifth purely for spaceships. You all sorts of guns to choose from, but if you want to do any tricky fancy shooting from the movies, you got to purchase yet another book called "Gun-Fu" to do them which is 50 pages long, this is the low end for a GURPs book.

you get general some general superpowers in the corebook, but if you want the full thing you have to purchase another book to get the superhero genre rules. this doesn't include martial arts or magic both of which are two separate books and are longer than the superhero book. for even more powers you have to purchase yet another book.

but keep in mind, the magic book is not the book on the fantasy genre, which is a separate book.

oh and spaceships don't cover actual space CAMPAIGNS which is again its own book.

now sure you can run a lot using the corebook only. but if you want to really go into more detail, you have to be very thorough and exacting about which books you want and how much your willing to include.

TLDR: the answer is yes. a resounding yes.