Well I only agree with one part in that there seems to be less focus on new and innovative ideas and more focus on "safe" releases. Even the new ips seem to be just repackaging of other titles, or what I like to call same game new name titles. But I'd say a lot of this has to do with higher budgets and lack of consumer reception to unknown brands. Maybe newer brands should take on lower budgets and release at lower prices until they establish a brand name. Who knows.
As for the rest, you are pretty much arguing against the gaming industry itself. Entertainment as it may be, the main goal still is getting a profit. And everything you named you don't like them doing is essentially good business. If you want people to buy it new, give them a good reason to buy it new and not secondhand. Which in turn forces the secondhand dealers to cut better deals due to the lack of something. Could end up giving cheaper games to people who don't want those added functions such as online. And really trying to say that somehow in the past times were better, I severely doubt that. I mean gaming is so large right now, you generally are getting more releases in one year than over the entire course of a generation back in the older gens. And aside from maybe the earliest of gens where they only could make new and original ideas, creating long-lasting brands was generally what was done. Some like Nintendo and Square Enix still have those titles present til today and I doubt they or the gamers will come out and say that isn't a good thing. And sales would agree with that.
Personally I would say the path gaming is going down is probably a good one. The larger it gets, the more games release. The more mainstream it becomes the more sales it gets. More people in it means more opportunity for them to like games that you like. A game like Fallout or Elder Scrolls would never have sold as well as it did in the early 2000s which I would say is a good example of this. Maybe some titles will be lost in the mix as more developers want big hits and take out the cult hits, but that hasn't happened in gaming yet and I doubt it will in the near future. Enjoy the growth as it only benefits us.
