The real "tough pill to swallow" is that games are media and media culture is inherently about picking a minuscule number of winners, based on merit but also a huge amount of randomness. People don't seek out media based on pure merit, they seek out media that other people also like so they can share it together. It will always coalesce around a small number of lucky winners.
Sane people don't take up oil painting or singing or writing and expect to bring in enough patrons to fund it as their career. They might hope for that, but they know how slim the chances are, and they do it for the love of their art. Gamedev, I think being based on an engineering discipline and bringing in people with that mindset, is often seen as something different, where if you just do all the right things you'll eventually find success. It's not.
I think more game devs need to be content making something that is for them and their own sense of purpose, regardless of whether they ever find validation outside of it. Making a ga
