I generally tend to lose emote fights if they aren't based on mechanical decision-making, because I'm usually the person who cares less about the outcome.
I really, really enjoy a good emote fight. It's honestly one of my favourite things to RP. I have a lot of martial arts experience IRL, so I also think I tend to be pretty good at it in terms of portraying realism. (I will freely admit I also tend to give other people the side-eye, secretly, when I feel their fights lack this.)
A good emote fight should be dynamic, gritty, and convey a sense of the characters involved.
[ Disclaimer: this is my personal preference and I am not trying to wrongfun. ] I do not enjoy superhero movies at all and when it comes to RP, I find superhero-style fights to be an absolute snorefest too. I don't want to read/participate in an emote involving big dramatic fireballs and sonic rays or whatever behind hurled across a city by perfect people with perfect bodies. I want to write fights that are up close and personal, involving characters who are getting sweaty, tired, frustrated, and with every second that passes by there is an increasing risk that they're going to slip up, lose their concentration and momentum, and fail to block or connect. I want to see characters resorting to dirty tactics like pulling the other person's hair, going for the groin or throwing sand in their eyes. I want to see them getting bruised and ugly. And I want a heavy focus to be on how that makes them feel, their facial expressions: is there fear in their eyes? Are they ashamed of their performance? Are they getting mad? Do they hate the other person? Or is it a playful sexy fight and is hair falling in front of their eyes?
Who actually wins the fight matters less to me than all of that. If I'm RPing with a friend I usually defer to them and ask if they want to do this with dice/code etc. or if they'd rather freestyle it. I find most people tend to want to rely on code (possibly because they're more likely to be guaranteed a win vs. me this way as I don't often make strong combat characters), but I'm usually always secretly hoping they choose freestyle. I don't want the outcome determined ahead, I want it determined over the course of the fight based on whatever feels right in the moment. Realistically, the winner should usually whoever's character is portrayed as having more experience. If I'm playing an international spy trained in krav maga and you're playing a socialite, I expect you to use common sense and respect my portrayal of their fighting know-how, and not try to get away with just getting lucky.
However, as I find most people really like winning and will write in a way more focused on making their character look good, it usually just naturally occurs that I've spent more time writing about how my character is getting tired, sweaty and nervous, and so by default the fights don't read in my character's favour, comparatively.
I do enjoy other people's approval, so my personal "win" is being appreciated, having my writing style praised, and being thanked or talked-up for a good scene. So I'm not trying to say I don't have an ego on the line here, I just derive it through other means.
Overly detailed combat systems that tell you which body part you've hit and rely on a specific weapon tend to fall short for my tastes because they can very quickly get very stale.
I enjoy a bar fight where we're moving from one room to the other, one moment using a stool for a shield, a fist for a weapon, and the next leaping onto the counter for a kick or trying to strike with a bottle over the head. These kinds of organic, dynamic, improvisational fighting styles aren't really possible if you're having to rely on your best weapon stat etc. There isn't room for intermission, playful banter etc., because doing so means you're wasting your turn.
This is one of my all-time favourite fight scenes from one of my all-time favourite movies, Atomic Blonde. Which probably gives a good idea of what I like to see. I love the little details, for example where both opponents keep trying to stand because it's a life-or-death situation, but they're so dizzy from blood loss and blunt trauma they keep falling over. They murder each other through what amounts to a drunken haze.
But for a more light-hearted, playful fight, there's also this entertaining scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. It has everything I mentioned liking about the characters making good use of their environment, adapting to changing circumstances, moving around rather than just standing there hitting each other, etc.
