This is one of those funny places, because I find myself often very close to the OP. Non-surprise all around.

However, I think that for me there is an element of judgement to it, even when I don’t want there to be. Because while “play a game like Game of Thrones” will get my ick face on, but “play a game like Game of Thrones, if it wasn’t a tale told by an idiot, full of sound, and etc.” will make me laugh and maybe play. Because who wants to play big-media crap? But play something like bid-media crap with the humanity snuck back in? Sure.

Which shows there is some level of bullshit contradiction, where what I’m judging is not the quality of the game or the creativity of the players, but I am judging both mass culture output and the (understandable) desire to hew to it. The second thing is not more “creative” than the first, and is still basing its center of gravity on mass culture output.

So yea, I’m a hypocrite.

I also have parallel thoughts about common gamer shorthands and things that flutter about mass culture genres. Like the use of “fae” in urban fantasy. (It was one of the few things I didn’t like in “Nightmares Underneath” which is this awesome Turko-Persian setting, but the “Fae” are still “Fae” and I’m just like “WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT.” Because… fae. fucking hell.)

But I’m not sure those are quite the same thing as the OP. To me they feel connected, but that’s because of my slant on/background with mass market gentrification and the common denominators of thought. Where as the original seems okay with those sorts of tropes, and more about taking the whole construction as such and going with it.

Anyway. Non coherent, tl;dr: me too.