This reminds me of two related arguments, though both spill over into the accessibility space a bit. The first is controllers, and the other is subtitles.
Is it an important part of revisiting a game to play it with the original controls, on the original controller? Like OP alludes to with dual analog shooters. To what extent is there some kind of moral imperative to stick to things as they were, even if you’d get more joy out of it if the controls were just a little less awkward?
I think the complacency described here is also common with subtitles. There are of course many reasons to use subtitles (watching something in not your best language/dialect, hearing difficulty, ADHD even) but it’s often assumed to be the default as if it doesnt completely change the way you experience a piece of media (game, show, or movie) because youre locked in om the bottom 15% of the screen the entire time.
not that anything in here was a huge shock, still a nice article and accessible enough that I can send it to my mom.
I enjoyed the obligatory “x megacorp had no comment asked why they collect the amount of time you spend on the toilet at work” paragraph at the end of each section.
edit: spelling is hard