[munificent]

It's definitely true that you can just recalculate and redraw the entire terminal in a roguelike these days with decent performance. I've done it.

However, doing that wastes CPU cycles that you can use for other fun stuff in the game. In particular, monster AI will easily soak up any cycles you want to throw at it, and the more you can, the more interesting your enemies will be.

[jamesaguilar]

"Wastes CPU cycles." How many? Enough to noticeably weaken an AI? Unlikely. Especially since the problem space in a Roguelike is tiny.

[munificent]

Yes, it can, actually. Rendering graphics is slow. AI is slow. Doing either one of them inefficiently punishes the other.

AI code can easily eat any free cycles you want to give it: you can always crank up your pathfinding distance or the number of turns your AI looks ahead.

The problem space of a roguelike is massively larger than chess and that can certainly keep a supercomputer busy.