A cut-scene for something that isn't part of the main story, that happened 200 years ago, and which your character had no way of seeing or knowing about?  That's more realistic?  How, exactly?  Did my character develop psychoscopy powers from radiation exposure?

No.  Logs are a great way to make auxillary story-telling optional and immersive.  Cut-scenes for all the little side-stories you stumble across would be obnoxious and a pain to deal with.  In Fallout 4, if you want to know the story of the dead soldier you found, you can listen to her log.  If not, you can ignore it.  Best of all, neither one forces you to stop playing the game to deal with an intrusive cut-scene.  

They put non-essential information at the player's discretion.

I don't mind them that much, but then again I haven't played many games that used them. The Talos Principle used them well I think, and it fits with the context/lore of that game.

It depends how it's used and whether the game gives you the time to listen to them without being stuck in a menu. Who says audio logs won't be a thing in the future, captain's log ring a bell? ;) Video logs would be more realistic the way you tube is going, yet that doesn't make them any more interesting. Just the audio is fine while you explore. Cut scenes would be worse for the kind of background stories told in audio logs. They should be reserved for the main plot.

HZD strikes a nice balance. Holographic cut scenes for the main plot, audio logs for sub stories showing the effects of the main plot on ordinary people and text logs for background information and additional little details. Most of the logs and text messages were in logical places, unlike in games like Bioshock where somehow a string of audio recordings is left through the levels to advance the main plot. Makes no sense.

I also enjoyed the way Deus Ex: HR did it by hacking into terminals with text messages or the Talos principle. However then you're stuck at the terminal. While reading is faster, hearing voices and background noises can enhance the content. I grew up listening to radio dramas at night, so might be biased there.

Actually I'm more inclined to listen out audio logs than dialogue between characters. I almost always turn on subtitles so I can read ahead and click through dialogue to speed things up.

But it's very annoying when the character or someone else talks over them. Usually I'm hesitant to move far while listening to an audio log. At least you can still inspect the surroundings with the camera, or the player character ;)

Actually Portal 2 comes to mind as a perfect balance between telling the story through world building and audio. Of course it's easier if you have a companion to give out the background information.

Bless Witcher 3, has real dialogues for nearly everything.

I also dislike the use of radio by NPCs giving you orders etc

He said "mania" meaning craze, not inventing it. Bioshock came at the start of last gen and after it many games had audio logs.

System Shock didnt usher anything, it wasn't common during the PS1/PS2 era.

Sure, no one played System Shock 1 or 2.

System Shock sold less than 200,000 copies. It was enough to keep the dev afloat, but ultimately still wasn't profitable.

System Shock 2 sold even worse, and was a flop by pretty much every metric.

The newer re-releases on Steam and GOG have done ok, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation we were having.

2 has over  831,272+2,127 + 1,699. Also from the wiki of the first System Shock:

"Critics praised System Shock and hailed it as a major breakthrough in its genre. It was later placed on multiple hall of fame lists. The game was a moderate commercial success"

It's not a failure of a game and it's certainly not one to forget (unless you purposely ignored it, which would be telling).

Either way it has had it's share of profits, people talking about it and becoming a game known by many on PC.I don't think it's fair to deny the game any credit towards inspiring anyone out there for their games.

Well, it depends on whether or not the franchise was already known for its cutscenes or not. MGS was already known as a cutscene-heavy series, so I can understand why people wouldn't like the transition to audio logs. But even then, the codec cutscenes were basically the same thing as audio logs.

I agree, it's annoying af.

I'm also confused by your OP, as there's still plenty of games that have cutscenes. If it bothers you that much, just ignore the ones that have audio logs and go with the ones that have cutscenes.