I don’t know if its the age or perhaps I unconciously became sick of the practices OP describes, but the games I genuinelly enjoy playing the most nowadays are mainly AA or Indie. And ofc, I don’t mind paying full price for them.

A non-exhaustive list of those I loved:

• Outer Wilds (became my favourite game of all times)
• Inside/Limbo
• Little Nightmares
• Sifu
• The standley parable
• Still awakes the deep
• Gris/Neva
• Firewatch
• Journey/Abzu/The Pathless/Sea of Sword
• Rainworld
• No man’s sky (a special case, I know)
• Cocoon
• Unravel
• Stray
• Below
• Far
• Pacific Drive
• The invincible

imho, this is the most correctest answer