It's expanded pretty far outside those realms already. Aside from the obvious ones like The Sims, Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon etc, sports simulators are huge (FIFA, Madden, Football Manager), cooking/retail simulators are big business on consoles and especially as mobile games (https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/628-best-mobile-...), Euro Truck Driver and a million variations are making plenty of money, and I just came across Farming Simulator 17 - https://www.humblebundle.com/store/farming-simulator-17
"Life" is not classified as a proper game because of a very unfortunate combination of gameplay mechanics - it has permadeath, suffering (unheard of in pretty much any other game), lots of grinding, and it's very unbalanced. Any one of these alone is OK, but taken together, they make for a shitty, and ultimately one-time experience.
