Do gamers ACTUALLY want smaller budget games?

[SvennoJ]

Gamers want games made by smaller management.
Games with a vision instead of made by committee.
Games directed by an auteur instead of directed by the marketing department.
Games made with passion instead of churned out for quarterly revenues or maintaining subscription counts.

I guess that works better with lower budgets since high budgets mean a lot of stakeholders pushing their own ideas. It can also work with high budgets like Death Stranding (2) but you need someone with a clear vision, a director who pretty much dictates how the game should be.

It is always easier with a small team. The higher the budget, the more people, the more voices, the more feature creep and bloat. But if you have the right person at the helm, big budgets can produce wonderful games. Also wonderfully decisive games. Still better than bland one size fits all games.