kn1000a: I didn't read everything in this thread, but just going by people like OP I think a lot of people have not experience great visual novels. But I will chime in as someone who consume these kind of anime-style games.
Many of people who play these games, myself included, do hate the influx of cheap smut and hentai games on Steam as well. Good visual novels and eroge do not find much of a footing on Steam, in fact. When one thinks of hentai or porn on Steam, maybe Huniepop comes to mind, puzzle with some dialogues, choices, and sex. Or maybe Nekopara, a visual novel completely about cat girls and fetishizing them. Let's go all-age, and you might've heard about the popular Doki Doki Literature Club a few years ago that hits mainstream, a meta-breaking game that left a huge impact and surprises.
What if I also tell you none of these are the pinnacle of eroge and visual novels?
I assume from an outsider perspective, people just look at the flow of these kinds of games and think there's no value in them and that they're the same. Steam allows a lot of these low-effort games and that's what you usually seen posted around the communities, with their meme-y and absurd titles. The Japanese eroge scene has the same kind of thing, games that are just written to fap called nukige. Porn scenes after porn scenes, not much value in characters nor plot except fulfilling a fetish.
But like any community, the bottom tier entries should not represent the rest of its potential. Game is simply a medium, so is visual novel, anime, comics, novels, etc. Just like there are awesome games like the Witcher, there also exists FIFA ##. A lot of the Japanese porn games (eroge) are often high quality and have very well written plot. Song of Saya is a dark and horror Lovecraftian story that make you question the choices in life. Venus Blood series and Kamidori has some of the most complex and in-depth RPG system and units, which Sseth did videos on as well. Dead End Aegis has been compared to Watts' novel Blindsight. I'm not even touching some of the all-age visual novels like Steins;Gate or Umineko either.
Not all visual novels are about choosing a heroince and dating/fucking them, nor are they just about perverted, vile fetishes. If you really research into this kind of field, you would find a lot of good games as well, whether you dig RPG playstyle or want to read a well-written tale of tragedy to heroic feats. When I play one of these games, I don't have my dick in my hand to fap. In my opinion, porn in a good game is as much fappable as porn in a Hollywood movie would be. They're great additions to flesh out the whole story and set up, not really something I would consume to satisfy sexual urges.
That's just my two cents, just want to throw it out there that these hentai games people often see on Steam aren't everything.
Thats probably one of the better posts in here.
My only issue with it (well besides the blurred lines as gaming & VR progesses) is that no filter was introduced, it was Steam all over again, back when they opened the flood gates the top sellers were mostly anime/anime porn.
with having to sift through it all, i couldn't easily find a game i would have been interested in, so i just stopped bothering till i was able to turn if off, i even got news popups with it.
Which only goes back to the days of browsing the internet and every popup being porn, it was "yeah i like porn, but i don't want it coming up everytime i open my browser"
And it's the same with GOG, i personally (and i know i ain't the only one) don't want it thrown at me everytime i pull up the GOG store, it's not what my focus is when playing games...they could have EASILY provided another section you had to click on too view it, but it's obvious they preferred to throw it out there.
