I never said you need to make a customer move, you could, it doesn't change the mechanics of the game at all.

What I am saying is that you need to force rolls if you want an intensive chase. You can't just say, well, you are faster than this guy, you catch him. There should be some roll+dex/str/con/int rolls in there, no matter if you call it a Defy Danger if the move results in something outside the norm it's pretty much a custom move.

No high intensity player/npc scene should be played out in only 1 roll. Zooming out is for things like how well do you traverse a section of field. Like a perilous journey, if the players decide to route things over a gorge or river or up a cliff there should be a scene for that. A travel montage if you will. Same goes for a chase scene, you should go clip to clip to clip at a high pace focusing on the actions of each character in pursuit of the target. This means multiple rolls over the course of the chase.

I'm also curious how you can say a man in chain with an incredible strength who is very used to wearing it will be slower than someone else, perhaps wearing leather which weighs the same who might naturally be a slower runner. Those are all up to player description of their characters and are arbitrary.

Letting the fiction entirely determine what's going to happen is basically just GM fiat. At that point why even have rolls? Just determine it all with the fiction.

I like a healthy balance of die rolls and narrative. Situation example "Ok, the orcs split up, what do you do", players split up, "Alright, you split up to chase the orcs, some head for the kitchen the others head towards a guard tower." Players respond with narrative that ends with dead orcs. Done, chase over. OR you can toss in a die roll, that way they can fail and NOT feel cheated by your decision that they should get caught, and if you are going to just let them win anyway, whats the point of playing since there is no challenge.

Now I know my opinion doesn't have to be yours, and that's fine. We have our own tables. But I would much prefer a setup like this.

"The orcs take off in different directions, some head straight for the kitchen doors, the others run off towards a guard tower. What do you do."

Players, "We split up and chase them" Insert descriptive narrative about their attempts. "Ok, roll *insert skill*. Well, looks like you catch up to the orcs running toward the guard tower, however only one of you chasing the orcs toward the kitchen manages to catch up to them, what do you do?"

What follows is probably some Volley/Hack'n'Slash/spellslinging or if no resistance just killing them from behind. It adds some unknown and chance to the situation making it, in my opinion, more interesting. Obviously for longer chases involving more variables you should have more rolls. Defy Danger to avoid barrels or low hanging branches, to cross rivers, jump gorges, jump horses over things, etc.

What a game should never be is entirely decided by the GM or the players.

I would a defy danger with a stat appropfiate to the fiction. 10+ you can close/ attack if.close enough, 7-9 you are just keeping up/ attck if close enough but fall behind after, 6- you fall behind.

Give them a short but reasonable amount of fictional time before their prey gets to where tgey are going.

in essence improvise

Ah ok. I chose 2 rolls because it gives more specific chances of something to go bad. Like Defy to some a zombie and attempt to hack another. Fail on the first maybe it grabs your shield. Choose to keep it and not attack or let go. Fail on hack. Shoved the zombie but the other lunges while you are distracted.