The story lines and the graphics are orthogonal. It’s possible to immersive and fun games with “poor” graphics (Portal) and it’s possible to have bad storylines with amazing graphics.
Even if you’re fond/nostalgic for older hardware and games, that doesn’t mean you can’t recognize that things have improved.
Well if the overarching point is that nowadays we have so much computing power, and it doesn’t really result in better experiences, and that most things one would want to do could’ve been done on much older hardware, then it’s kind of the point that the graphics are orthogonal to a fun gaming experience.
Even if you’re fond/nostalgic for older hardware and games, that doesn’t mean you can’t recognize that things have improved.