Isekai was a thing before the word was popularized and normalized in the west to describe the subgenre of fantasy. I'd argue The Neverending Story is clearly an isekai, for example. And there's been great conventional anime isekais in the past, such as Vision of Escaflowne.
What I'm sick of is the "oh this is like a video game and the NPCs can be manipulated because they're just programs susceptible to cheat codes" gimmick. It's gross and I find it intolerable to follow any "hero" that dehumanizes other characters under any excuse to build a virtual capitalist empire with an infinite harem. It's :epstein: tier :brainworms: to me.
I don't want to automatically reject something I hear about because I hear it's an "isekai" but all too often it means "another video game world with NPCs to exploit!" :capitalist-laugh:
What an empty sort of metagamey victory to fantasize about. How alienating and sad for such "heroes," even if they still deserve :gulag: in general.
I wrote a third of a story about a :freeze-gamer: who was at the launch of the world's most anticipated VRMMO 100 years in the future. I put numbers on the power levels, the movement speed, and the in-game currency. I think going full LitRPG is boring and it takes away from a character's ability to be creative. The narrative is in first person and it's portrayed like, "I know about all the spell descriptions, damage calculations, and optimizations, but I'm not going to bore you with it. What I want to talk about is the interpersonal drama in my hardcore guild and the streamers that associate with us."