Wouldn't increased budgets actually lead to much worse stuff since you have more employees and production steps and get afraid of the average joe not getting it

Wouldn't increased budgets actually lead to much worse stuff since you have more employees and production steps and get afraid of the average joe not getting it. You get further and further from coherent artistic visions and jokes you find funny yourself. Those games back then were not made for average people, because average people didn't even have PC:s. People who played them also had less other distractions so the games didn't need to be so in-your-face to get attention.