One issue why modern-era games (and anime and other types of media) are so garbage, is because nearly all of it today is derivative of something else. And the reason for that is because the creators today, don't have real life experiences.

Here's what I mean- in the past the creators of media were individuals who had interests and passions beyond media, who drew inspiration from those passions to make better games and shows.

Now, people that make media, don't have any real interests beyond said media. So they get all their inspiration from other media. Game designers draw inspiration mostly from other games, anime creators draw inspirations mostly from other anime, and so on.

The Lord of the Rings was written by a World War veteran who was a scholar of ancient European culture.

Neon Genesis Evangelion was written by an amateur historian who was fascinated with western esoteric philosophy.

The Chronicles of Narnia were written by a devout Christian who was also a Freemason.

Several of the early fighting games and shonen Animes that became classics, were created wholly or partly by people that had actual martial arts experience, some of it professional.

How many pieces of media today can claim the same origins? When you watch the interviews for how some modern series or game or movie was made, the creator rarely mention personal interests- they almost always describe being inspired by some other series or game or movie.

Of course borrowing inspiration from other media is not a new thing, (several of the examples I listed did that to a limited extent) but the modern trend of mostly or wholly borrowed inspiration, and lack of original inspiration, is the main problem.

Of course the overt politicizing of media is part of the issue too but that's already been discussed to death.