[thejeff]

Oddly I remember hearing the same things at least a decade ago.

Including all the "it's just pretty pictures, where's the gameplay" rants.

A lot of it is Sturgeon's Law. It's also a matter of taste. 4X/TBS games are out of favor right now. Maybe that's linked to the mass market, maybe it isn't.

Some of it's economic. It's much better to sell lots of games that people won't play for very long than one that they'll play for years. (Unless you're getting online subscription fees.) Sure, you can sell add-ons and sequels, but you need a real big hit to make that work.