My thoughts exactly. Even Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the peak of quality so far for Mario Kart is inferior to Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. And of course, some other Mario classics like Super Mario World and the Galaxy games to name a few. 

3D Mario on Switch 2 is almost guaranteed to be a better game than Mario Kart 9. 

OK. Well, I have no need to be "pretentious" with a term i do not give a real fuck and I simply used as an easy way to express myself, so I will be more exact then: I understand "Hardcore gamer" as "a daily dedicated player". Nothing more, nothing less. A casual gamer, usually, does not play every day... or it plays something like 15 minutes a day.

That guy of the photo, to me, is just a collector. I cannot know if he is a "hardcore gamer" or not.

Lots of new "hardcore gamers" have no physical collections at all. All pure steam. I mean... Steam. (Or some other similar digital service).
And I totally approve that. Me myself I prefer digital. I hate the youtubers with looooots and loooots of shelves full of boring spines of modern plastic game boxes, all of them equal, all of them in the same colour, behind them. It is fucking dumb, boring, and even sad. Better put some good books in the shelves, much nicer. But that is just an opinion.

BUT... I also approve the people who have a HUGE collection of games... especially if they collect classic nice games, with boxes and manuals, and specially if the guy knows what the fuck is he doing (there are some really beautiful collections out there, and some horrible ones). But those kind of people, with really huge collections, normally DO NOT PLAY 99% of the games they buy: they act as a some sort of museum. They barely can be defined as "hardcore or dedicated gamers". They are dedicated COLLECTORS.

Very much as the coin/bill collectors or postage stamp collectors. And, as those, some of them also try to make some money reselling their items when they can. Personally, I will NEVER do any kind of collectionism, including games. And yes, I love my minuscule childhood game collection, as everyone else, but I do not need to see it every day, in a shelf. I just understand the people who likes to collect. Collectionism is a hobby, like many others. Not mine, but totally respectable.

Love myself a Lart racer. :P

To the point: MK is a multiplayer game and has been forever. Regular Mario can have multiplayer feats, but it is mostly solo play. How many single player experiences nowadays beat large multiplayer based experiences? So, no, it is just a different segment, with Kart being more popular (a trend since the Wii days, almost 20 years now).

I have to stop typing so fast. 

Yeah, I don't think one genre can outclass another genre. Maybe within the same genre, but not outside it. For instance, I would say Super Metroid outclasses Symphony of the Night, but not Tetris. One is a puzzle game. The other is not etc.  

Outselling, yes
Outclassing, no

Yeah while Mario Kart is definitely the bigger seller, I wouldn't rank even the best MK (8 IMO) as highly as the likes of Mario Bros 1/3/Wonder in terms of quality.

That's not a diss to MK though as the likes of MK8 and MKWii are still great games.

Mario spinoff franchises are doing well, Mario Kart games are the biggest sellers of course, but even Mario Party games are standing up well in terms of sales compared to mainline platforming Super Mario games.

Mario Party has exploded more than ever on Switch in terms of units sold and it's even doing well in terms of the overall attach rate. 

I do think Mario Party will continue its spot as the 3rd-biggest Mario IP behind Super Mario and Mario Kart. Even if future Mario Strikers, Golf, or Tennis get a lot of good reception, I don't think they'll touch the top Mario series. And I don't see any Mario RPGs around the top either. 

Even with Mario Kart now the top Mario series, I'd really like 2 3D Mario games on Switch 2 like we got on Wii. But the release gap can be bigger than the roughly 2.5 years between Galaxy and Galaxy 2. 3D Mario in 2025 (maybe 2026) and then another 3D Mario in 2030 or so would be good pacing. And obviously Switch 2 will have to have a 2D Mario game as well.