what's a triple A game?
it's a game that has high budget, high profile and most importantly developed by some type of company

now why do triple A games suck?
well first of all not all of those games suck, Elden Ring for example. It's a good game.
so what makes a bad AAA game? it's simple, it's when the companies behind those games start shoving unnecessary and unrelated shit into their games, basically adding an outside cause to play the game other than for it's story, gameplay and whatever.

"Ariel what do you mean by unnecessary and unrelated shit?" you may ask. by that i mean stuff like battle passes, cosmetics, limited time events, ingame currency, cases, gambling. personally that shit repels me from even touching games that have those things.

and it may be true that those things don't affect gameplay so why should we dislike those? it's because when you buy and waste money on things like battle passes and cosmetics you feel compelled to play to get your money's worth, heck you might hate the gameplay and like the cosmetics, so you play the game purely for that. and there's nothing wrong as long you're happy with that choice tbh.

enter indie games, the saviors of the gaming industry. the nightmares of those greedy corporations. i adore indie games and rightfully so.

indie games don't have microtransactions 99% of the time, they don't rely on outside causes to make people play their game again and again. it's because indie games are well made and have good gameplay! here's examples of games from the top 100 global games of steam:
terraria, stardew valley, geometry dash, rimworld, project zomboid, the binding of isaac and honestly so much more.
those games are indie games that barely have any microtransactions and probably don't have any.
it's because again, they are good games and are not like those soulless games (counter strike, apex legends, leauge of legends etc etc etc)

companies should take example from those games and stop being greedy assholes because if indie games managed to be that successful without bloating their games with microtransactions then maybe those same indie games are just better and more well made! they have good gameplay! they please the consumers!

take ULTRAKILL for example, it's an almost PERFECT game in my opinion, the only flaw being the game not being fully out yet, ultrakill is pure gameplay and action, and yet it topples over most modern triple A games in terms of quality and gameplay, that's because it's more focused on gameplay and not "oo shiny skin.."!!!

MAYBE ONE DAY, IN A FATEFUL DAY, AN UNLIKELY ONE. A COMPANY WOULD MAKE A TRUE GAME. NO BATTLE BS PASS AND NOTHING LIKE THAT, JUST A GOOD GAME.

tldr; most triple A games suck, embrace indie games

Your frustration is one that I commonly find myself relating to. Hype culture, dopamine hit optimization, and FOMO have been a cancer to gaming.

You've already listed some great games, but I'd like to recommend a couple of more: Bug Fables and Peglin.

Bug Fables is an RPG that takes great inspiration from the old Paper Mario Games.
Peglin, as described on it's Steam page, is a Pachinko Roguelike. Definitely not something I saw myself getting into, but I ended up really enjoying it. There's a free demo you can try too.
Both typically go on sale in the summer and provide a nice mental refresh when industry slop has me feeling drained.

> those soulless games (counter strike, apex legends, leauge of legends etc etc etc)
I see a pattern here: all "good" games that you've listed are mostly single-player (some have optional multiplayer), while all "bad" games are PvP. What if it's actually a genre problem? Think about it...

it's only a side product of AAA games being meant to draw you in, in PvP games when you win you get an ego boost and keep wanna playing, and when you lose you feel like you gotta prove yourself. +winning gives high reward in their shitty microtransaction hell

i'm SURE there are good pvp based indie games

I have almost completely given up on modern AAA video games. These days, I mostly play arcade games, many of which were considered AAA in their time. My tolerance for non-gameplay bullshit in modern games was already extremely low, but playing arcade games has pushed it down to zero.

I could complain more, but I already complain enough. Try some Capcom beat em ups and CAVE shmups. There is nothing to do but try to improve, with a definitive number to represent your skill. These games make me remember that video games are actually NOT gay. The best part is that these games are free through emulation, no quarters required. Quick sidenote, it drives me crazy when I hear people say arcade games are like gacha games.