Since this game calculates realistic fuel consumption in pretty low revs, it is beneficial to economy to have your high torque as low as possible
No. The game calculates efficiency/economy in the engine designer between 1500 and 2500 RPM, because that's the usual RPM band where normal engines are driven.
When it comes to realistic fuel consumption in the car designer, the RPM don't really matter (directly). The "driver" uses the gear with the lowest effective fuel consumption at various speeds considering BSFC and additional losses becauses of sucking against a partially closed throttle.
For example: Let's say you need 10 kW for cruising at 100 km/h and the driver can decide between only two gears (just a simplification for this example). In the first gear, the engine runs at 6000 RPM and makes exactly 10 kW at full throttle. This means it gets no penalty on the BSFC, let's say it is 300 g/kWh. The fuel consumption then is 10 kW * 300 g/kWh -> 3000 g/h. In the second gear, it makes 30 kW at 3000 RPM, but has a BSFC of 200 g/kWh at full throttle. You only need 10 kW, so you have to close the throttle. The BSFC will thus get worse, let's say 350 g/kWh. The fuel consumption then is 10 kW * 350 g/kWh -> 3500 g/h. So the driver will choose the first gear and run at 6000 RPM.
This is uncommon in real life, yes, but not impossible. Especially small, high revving engines really can behave that way. The problem of normal size or big engines with aggressive cam profiles is, that they make way too much power in their most efficient RPM range. When cruising in that RPM range, they suffer from heavy throttle losses and are thus still more efficient at lower RPM, where they make not much power but have smaller throttle losses.