Hardcore gamer = someone who plays only cinematic grizzed white dude games and/or military fetishizing FPS
Casual gamer = anyone that is not a 15-25 yo male, and/or plays anything outside of the previously mentioned games, especially if those games are colorful.
So basically the gaming community is full of gatekeeping, misogyny, toxic masculinity and general chuddery. They make sure they're the loudest voice heard when anything about games is talked about, and won't be happy until all games a homogenous stream of bland, hyper-realistic but with a grey filter slog of mindless action with no heart or soul. And don't you dare force them to read any dialogue or story.
There's also the fact that most games journalists don't like games. They're only in the business to write as a job and to get a better job down the line. You think humans can't tell when journalists despise what they're writing about? Imagine someone who doesn't like baseball being assigned to write about baseball. Imagine someone who hates home cooking and orders every meal Doordash being assigned to the food beat.