OP, we [avid players, enthusiasts, from 80s to 2000s] were replaced by new customers with no standards. We're a minority in our own community. For many years now.
The original game developers that were like us in taste and temperament, that enjoyed games for the same reasons we did, are all gone or turned traitor. Or worse, they've become cowards in league with the enemy. Complicit.
We are not the ones buying the bad games that kill the art in video games. It is the ignorant masses, the casual, the fair weather fan that are responsible.
Video games are a flawed art medium. The only way to tell if something is good for the ignorant, new, or uninitiated, is to play it. Which means handing over $60. Usually, no one tries to get a refund if they don't like it. One good hype train is enough to succeed and then not deliver a quality video game.