Icons: Fate's Much More Appealing (to me) Cousin

Last spring, I ran a brief Skype campaign of Icons (the "Assembled Edition.") The game ultimately failed due to scheduling incompatibility, but our session was incredibly fun. In fact, I still maintain that Icons is the only superhero roleplaying game I have ever played that felt like a comic book or a superhero animated series. 

Gushing aside, I want to examine why Icons worked so well for me when Fate Core has been such a struggle. 

Icons only takes certain pieces of Fate. It differs substantially on several levels: 

*Stats are rated 1-10, rather than the adjective scale that came from Fudge. 

*Task resolution is resolved by rolling 1d6 + Stat vs. the opponent's roll or a set target number. 

*Conflict is more traditional in style: initiative, I roll attack you roll to defend, there are Stamina/hit points, etc. 

*Aspects are called Qualities. They work much the same, but PCs have fewer and PCs also have standardized attributes. To clarify: in Fate Core, you would only have a strength-related aspect if your character was somehow defined by strength. In Icons, all characters have a strength rating. There are also temporary Qualities, inflicted by the clever use of skills and powers.

*There are no extras; that's all covered by a pretty handy little powers system. Skills are also bonuses to any action roll that could conceivably benefit from them. (Some skills being more specific than others) 

Reading back over this, my conclusion is that Icons is a rules-lite but traditionally mechanical RPG with some Fate-esque elements added for flavor and to make superhero combat as interesting as it should be. It adds Qualities on as a topping, whereas Fate Core seems to approach Aspects as the core game play mechanic.