Totally agree. A flashy light show will only keep people's focus for a hot minute, but good core gameplay will keep players engaged for so much longer. Just look at dwarf fortress, lol.

I would say It Depends. I play almost exclusively indy games and yes AAA graphics aren't what I'm expecting.

But some indy games just look like the dev threw the sprites together in less than half a day and it can be offputting. Dated can be ok, but rushed and butt ugly... Hell I almost skipped Rimworld way back when because the visuals looked so lazy.

The gameplay has to be really freaking fantastic to cover that up. In Rimworld's case it was.

Battlebit is a good example of this for me - graphics are super basic but it's fun af and they get the important parts right.