Generally shorthand for animation, sound, and somewhat game balance. As for what’s good about it I couldn’t tell you because I came into the game jaded. IMO the visual design is nothing standout and the aim assist on mouse aim makes the entire experience sleep inducing.
Better alternatives? That is highly subjective. Itch’s store-front experience sucks balls and they lack 98% of the features Steam has. I appreciate their existence and have bought games from them, but language like that will only serve to alienate people that know how much Itch lacks compared to Steam.
Judging by the downvotes, people really don’t like being told not to use our favourite DRM, huh… anyway, the reason people buy on Steam is for all the features and functions. Other than personal controller configs, most will not work with non-Steam games. Family Sharing, Remote Play, Workshop, premade controller configs, achievements, playtime, and any social features. Of course if you don’t use any of these, then supporting a smaller store is great!
Still pisses me off, this was one of the reasons I updated and they half-assed the implemenation then said they’re killing it because no one is using it… no shit no one is using it, you hid it it behind the Amazon App (that no one uses) in the MS Store (that no one uses) and layers of docs for sideloading.
Perhaps “you’re right”, “you’re wrong and also short, here’s why”, or even “I don’t know”. These would all be things you could tell them and a better response.
Anecdotally, I feel like there is some survivorship bias going on here. I’ve seen plenty of complaints about Bethesda bugs over the years, but people that are truly bothered by it (me!) have sworn off all their games and thus have no reason to talk about them anymore. The only ones left playing are those that still have some enjoyment/respect for Bethesda games. Cyberpunk felt like more of a “mainstream” hit so it makes sense there was more backlash.
Technically Discord is trying to solve this with their threads feature, but I’ve found either the server owners don’t force it or the users don’t use it. Either way, it sucks.