I'm not disputing this argument, that is, the state of the market and the current trends, but... every era has its own trends, and any product is created taking this into account. In the days of King's Bounty, there was its own market, its own technology (much more limited than now), but the gameplay is still impressive. So, does the development of technology negate the brilliance of strategic thinking? I don't think so. If the technology is now much better than it was then, then the games should, in theory, be better than King's Bounty, not only in terms of graphics, but also in terms of improving the gameplay. Otherwise, it turns out that the simpler it is, the more brilliant it is.

It turns out that's the case. Now they make games with beautiful graphics, but with weak gameplay. A person, seeing a beautiful picture (and a well-known brand), buys the disc, plays for a week and doesn't think about the game anymore. And what about the developers? They've already received the money, without putting much effort into the gameplay. There have been plenty of such games lately, for example, TES4 Oblivion - a short main plot and uninspired gameplay + a nonsensical auto-adjustment of enemy levels, but what a picture! Yeah, and now almost no one remembers the game. Another example: Titan Quest - a pathetic parody of Diablo 2. And who was thrilled with M&M9? I wasn't. At least Gotic3 stands out from this series. Heroes5? Why should it be an upgraded version of Heroes3 in terms of graphics? In the 5th installment, they implemented new ideas (skill system) + something from the 3rd and 2nd installments, and townpoints were generally taken from Age of Wonders, although they are implemented slightly differently there, but still, it's from there. Of course, many would like a more well-thought-out game, but most people won't abandon (and haven't abandoned) the 5th installment on the shelf after 2-3 weeks of playing - by today's standards, this is already a success for a game. However, in my opinion, this game will not achieve the status of a super hit, unfortunately.

around this time, Age of Wonders was released, a unique game of its kind, with wonderful ideas and much better than Heroes!

I agree. And AoW: Shadow Magic is even better because the missions are noticeably more difficult.