> OG gamers expected to have their hair blown back through some combination of novel game mechanics, setting, and storyline pretty much every title every time, and if a game didn't deliver it didn't sell.

That is not my experience having gamed "seriously" since 1992. Everyone has different tastes. And besides folks over identifying with a console or platform, I recall most folks just trying a lot of different things then settling into what they enjoyed.

Sports games in particular have always been popular through many phases of low/no innovation because that just wasn't a priority to most of that demographic.

Your expectations remind me more of GameGate than 90s and oughts era gaming.