nabla: In chess, if your opponent loses on time and you have one single pawn against an army, you still win the game (if you don't have the pawn, it's a draw

That is an interesting point. You tell me that In chess it's conditional, so why not backgammon? I wonder whether they'd change the rules if there were more than one point at stake? When resigning a chess game the player loses one point because that's the only option. That not the case in backgammon which is precisely why the question remains about when to award what.