Perhaps more than any other medium, the larger gaming sphere (players, developers, and, of course, the moneymen) don't actually like video games.
I could attack this (true) statement from a bazillion angles, but the one I am going to choose (for right now) is difficulty. The topic of difficulty has been discussed ad nauseum in the gaming world, but I hope I can bring an argument that is new (or at least NEWER).
Consider this: Playing is not synonymous with winning. You have not played a game only once you have won it. This is when playing ENDS. Playing is LEARNING. You are deepest in the act of play when you are poking away at a problem, practicing a tricky section, finding new ways to turn the tide in your favor. When a game is easy and you are being handed a cavalcade of wins against shallow obstacles, you are not REALLY playing, you are being tricked into THINKING you are playing.
I do not intend this to be elitist, I'm terrible at video games. I've played over 1000 hours of Tetris Effect: Connected, and am still just OK at it, it took me more than 100 hours to 1cc (one credit clear, look it up if you wanna know) Mushihimesama, which is widely considered one of the easiest games in the "bullet hell" subgenre, and nearly every boss in the Old Hunters expansion for Bloodborne took me hundreds of attempts to defeat. I did not spend all this time and effort for **gamer cred**, I did it because I was engaging with these games as works of art, worthy of my time and effort to meet on their level.
Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky and one of the creators of UFO 50 (which will definitely get a post of its own if I decide to keep writing these) put it well when he said on Bluesky: "In theory, games are the perfect place to teach that failure is not only okay but a necessary stepping stone to success. [...] I want to feel like my actions matter i.e. what I do with time creates progress, not time itself." This quote is an amalgamation of a few posts, but I promise I'm not misrepresenting his words. I encourage you to check his Bluesky out, he's a font of wisdom!
Games are like any other art form in that the greatest rewards they can offer are the ones you reap yourself. Man With a Movie Camera, Funny Games, Blue Velvet, this year's woefully misunderstood Eddington, and more would not have been nearly as impactful if someone just told me "what the movie was about" and I accepted their word and never thought about it again. Play hard games, watch challenging movies, you can do it and you'll be glad you did.