These are two entirely different points or am I missing something? Any landscape is formed by what is succesful in the mainstream, like shiny said that's not a very videogame exclusive issue, and it's probably a stretch to call it an issue in the first place. Of course stuff like GOTY discussions and whatnot would be significantly more interesting if as many people had played excellent underdogs instead of just the hyped up blockbusters – which I think got quite nicely demonstrated this year by the huge amount of people raising their eyebrows at Balatro's nomination at the Keighly's – but that's an extremely unrealistic scenario to aspire to. You just gotta have to live with your casual gaming friends stumbling upon Watch Dogs and telling you it's the best game they've ever played. Which is fine, you can't be tuned into everything after all.
The digital-physical thing is a lost cause at this point and the way physical games have been handled recently almost gives me anxiety anyway. Xbox has barely any finished code on discs so the only advantage those give are re-sell opportunities. While Switch cartridges, from what I understand, are built in a way that they need a miniscule amount of electrical charge to work, so in 15-20 years all those games might be dead and unusable. Which will leave me with a truckload of plastic waste in my living room. On the other hand, pumping full price in a download I don't 'own' doesn't really feel like the right way either, so I'm just sticking with the physical stuff for the moment.
I agree about the point about how your perceive bought games. Having a copy to hold, unwrap, open and a media to put in your console is a very different feeling than pressing a button and waiting for a bar to fill. It's not quite as romantic, but for me it's comparable with the ritualistic nature of putting on a vinyl record vs. just clicking on a song on Spotify. There's something tangible getting lost, but whether that's just a nostalgic and subjective thing or something that'll eventually end up negatively affecting the whole media consumption aspect, I dunno. Probably the former though.