Different strokes for different folks though..?

Some enjoy the participation and view the outcome as an interesting side-benefit, whilst others are in it for the outcome alone and view the journey/participation as a necessary evil along their road to domination.

In the 'old' days, it's my opinion that games were made 'because they can'. Technological limitations and a minority social share meant that programmers (note not 'developers' or 'designers') could make whatever got them excited at the time.
These days it's a far more complex process involving market share, demographic considerations, ongoing profitability, political correctness, et al.

Designers have such a large amount of obstacles to consider and traverse before a single line of code gets typed, that it's no wonder titles these days seem watered-down and directionless.

*sniff