Since gaming is focused on the 90% dumb mainstreamers now not the 10% real gamers its just normal for this thing to happen. If 90% of your userbase just cares about visuals its obvious that your focus is raw power.
The problem is that japanese devs thought they had to do the same and make games for mainstreamers and their franchises fucked up thank god that seems to change with e.g SquareEnix and their Bravely Default success and hardcore games like DarkSouls etc.
Graphics are important but when the game design potential of a game is not hindered by the power of a system (because we lack gameplay innovation etc NOT power) then new hardware is irrelevant. Just look at Xenoblade and how its a much better RPG than say FF13 etc. Sure Xenoblade could have looked better but looking better is not more important than being a better game and since Xenoblade is the better game in most cases most of the PS360/PC games just waste the power of the hardware they are running on.
We need better devs and publishers and lower budget titles that allow for risky games. stuff like Minecraft, DarkSouls, No Mans Sky etc. Not more power and rising budgets that will just end up in even less risky/unconventional games because of dumb shareholders wanting short term profit and publishers and devs playing it save.
You remember how long surround sound exists? And how long it took the visual aspect of movies to be on par with the audio aspect? (well its still not really on par but 1080p 3d is as close as it gets.)
In gaming the visual aspect is becoming better and better but the gameplay/innovation aspect is stuck in monaural sound most of the time. When both are on par and a system is at its limits because you simply CANNOT make a better game because of the hardware (not because of the human limitation of creativity or whatever) then bring out a new system.
