It is literally derived from their Rail Wars wargame. They produced that and Deadlands, and the wargame version won out. Would it feel better to call it a skirmish game?
Most RPG rules hold their basic form based on their descent from wargames. The most famous would probably be Blackmoor which gave personalities and goals other than win this battle to a wargame, and inspired Dungeons & Dragons.
A few examples of games moving away from that would be Burning Wheel/Burning Empires, the Apocalypse Engine, FATE, and more free narrative oriented systems like Don't Rest Your Head, The Solar System.
It's never about what you resolve, unless you can only resolve combat I suppose, it's about how you go about it.
And yes, I agree with you @ThatGuyThere. It fails to be engaging as a roleplaying game, nor striking as a wargame. Malifaux and other skirmish games do better because they know the game mechanics and how you go about resolving things is the game play and has to be engaging. Savage Worlds relies on the strengths of any roleplaying group to make their generic system fly.
tldr; My criticism is that as a system it aims at the personal engagement level of a skirmishing game. That it is not great as a skirmish game only makes it worse.