The closest thing they can argue to any kind of “exclusivity” is that the free steam keys developers can generate for their games may not be resold for a lower amount than the game can be purchased for on steam outright. That says nothing about other means of distributing the game outside of steam, and nothing about alternative platforms the devs might want to use. It’s a tiny and far away straw to grasp at.
Inscryption and Outer Wilds have unforgettable twists that will never be the same on any future replays. Portal 2 has some of the funniest dialogue ever.
Mario 3, Mario World, and Breath of the Wild all were revolutionary games, but offer nothing that wouldn’t be just as cool on a second playthrough.
Further, the existence of Mario Maker and Tears of the Kingdom would make a blind playthrough of older games underwhelming, unless you were willing to erase your memory of all games since the release of the target game.
But only for today. The concept of triple A didn’t really exist back then, and at least one of the “then” game devs was totally indie for the game he made
I mean nobody said all indie devs were great, i just think that if you want to find examples of good game development today you’re largely going to find the stars are indie, not triple A