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Ignoring the lack of updates if the game is buggy, games back then were also more focused on quality and make gamers replay the game with unlockable features based on skills, not money. I can't count the number of times I played Metal Gear Solid games over and over to unlock new features playing the hardest difficulty and with handicap features, and also to find Easter eggs. Speaking of Easter eggs, you'd lose a number of hours exploring every nook and cranny finding them!
I just don't see how games that don't meet QA requirements and subsequently aren't shelved are in any way comparable to every game on the market today...
I mean I never had to encounter those bugs, games that weren't shelved didn't exist in any meaningful way because nobody spent money on them. But ~~nearly every~~ probably half of the games I buy and play today have serious bugs on day 1 (and many still have them on day 300). That feels like a different paradigm to me.