A little off topic but to respond to a sentence in the OP, the early to mid 90s was definitely not entirely where the Golden Age of gaming was limited to, or rather as the OP puts it widely remembered. Many more than that widely remember it still going on into the 32-bit/64-bit generation and even a little bit into the PS2/GC era.
The general consensus make or break a year is 1991-2002. The Golden Age wasn't limited to the 16-bit generation, as much as we all know the ones who prefer that generation like to keep telling themselves that >_>.
To segue more on to the topic at hand, you could say that it was because Japan (a country that has far less homogenized games than others) was the country at the forefront of the gaming industry during that time that made everything feel fun and exciting. That is reason alone to have Nintendo stay in gaming.
So we as gamers definitely want to keep Nintendo around.







