It's not a gimmick here though, it keeps people well invested and closer to the ecosystem. Frankly I lobe them, not them as a thing, they could all get deleted from my account and I wouldn't give a fiddlers but getting them on a game I am loving, having that games gameplay loop extended and become more meta is a great feeling and then there are games like Astrobot, I would have given up on that after the second galaxy cause I was not enjoying it and then I went to the platinum and starting 100%ing it and it turned out to be a 9/10 for me and I got 20 more hours of enjoyment out of it had I given up after those 4 hours in, got my moneys worth. Idgaf about them but I do wanna see them every year or two, I'll scroll through and get some memories and nostalgia and I like to dip in and see what other people are avhieving with games I'm interested in cause if someone has a plat on a 50+ hour game it's usually a sign that that fame is at least good and has a hook.

Again, there is a whole ecosystem of indie games being bought solely for their Platinum. These Devs would never make money asides from that and many indies get bought because of their plats by core gamers too, if someone on their friends list has a plat for a game it's a sign the game is good. The dev you're mentioning is an asshat and shouldn't be making games if he doesn't enjoy making games, there is nothing really to it besides dividing points. Games have had in built activity logs for decades, results screens and all of that that keep track of progress, trophies change very little about that aside from coming up with a goofy name, a thumbnail and figuring out what in the game is worthy of the goals of the the trophies. The dev can make that past part as difficult for themselves or as easy as possible, they can make a joke of it or ignore it mostly and add the progress of the main golden path of the game as a trophy list. When trophies first came around devs had to adopt them or ignore them cause Sony was not forcing devs to retroactively add lists to their games but the choose to adopt the system en masse.  

Yeah, but if you've got to have trophies in order to like a game, then that means the game just isn't good enough. Because I can assure you, I haven't needed one trophy so far to keep me playing Chrono Trigger on my SNES (first ever playthrough). As a matter of fact, this conversation right now is the first time I even thought about it not having them... because it's just that good of a game.

Well it's better than buying a game, disliking it and then doing nothing with it. You get something for your money this way but it's not that the game is bad, it's just you aren't geling with the game at that current moment cause the game needs to be good for you to continue to play regardless of the plat. It just give you a reason to get engaged with the game and find a path to that fun if you feel not in the mood or burned out or the game isn't as great as everyone is saying so there is no motivation to continue. If the trophies are done well, that is. The devs need to pit thought into the list. 

But by pointing out that there are now achievements for retro games I proved that they are relatively easy to implement and not difficult to do like one person told you.

Like a dragon Gaiden is an example of a special Platinum. I would have spent 12 hours max in this game, that's the main story and a toe in the side content and I'd have looked at that side content and went fuck that's some grind and wrote it off, instead with all the trophy goals along the way and the main goal in mind to order how I was to approach that side content and break it up into digestible pieces I doubled my time with the game and got to enjoy the best part of the game which I would have missed out on otherwise. It's not a perfect plat, it has blemishes and pointless trophies but it's definitely special and a perfect example of why I love these damn things.