I mean in general sure, there's more quality of life stuff in most modern games. There's a lot less cryptic puzzles that make no sense, and a lot fewer situations of getting lost. But you I could say Cookie Clicker and Genshin Impact are the epitome of modern games then, because they offer quick and consistent satisfaction to more people. They hit the nervous system right and keep people playing in ways that games 30 years ago perhaps didn't.

People are different too. A lot of people like hard as fuck games, even if they didn't grow up with them. The popularity of Dark Souls should show that at least. Some people might latch onto how a game like a 2D Castlevania feels. Also most people I meet aren't even into games in general, they're into specific types of games, like there's fighting game communities, there's people who prefer FPS, there are some people I know who only get interested in VR. And so I've met people who only get interested in retro or retro style games.