A little like a simulator, isn't it. I'm thinking about military-used sims that armies use to train recruits. You play a sim to get a feel of how things work in real life, and while RL cannot be modelled up to every little detail, most of its mechanics can. When you lose in a sim you sometimes can look at a recording of your actions and see what you did wrong. I'm not saying TDM should aim at becoming a sim, only that simulators are somewhere between traditional Thief and your idea.