Apparently I misunderstood the initial purpose of the conversation. I thought the first point of the conversation from the very first post and beginnings of the topic, not just your post specifically but rather the topic as a whole, was about small teams versus large teams in game development from a resource standpoint and finished product output. If it wasn't, then I misread and I apologize for this.
I was comparing small teams vs big teams. However, I was talking strictly about AAA games. I was talking about how small or even medium team can't make an AAA games nowadays, while before it was possible. I also acknowledge the fact that gameplay of vast majority of modern AAA games sucks ass. I was not talking about gameplay alone.
I will use Kenshi as an example. Let's pretend that technologies developed, but it is still incredibly easy to make a game, just like before. If today was just like twenty two years ago, you would've gotten the same game, Kenshi, developed by one man. However, there would've been a few tweaks. First, graphics would've been at the level of Cyberpunk, second there would've been a lot more animations, more music(of the same style), better optimisation, and importantly the same amount of bugs. Would you prefer to play that version of Kenshi? Or the old one? When I talk about graphics, I don't mean that the art style would change. I talk only about quality.
Anyway, nowadays it's not possible. Sure a small team can make a game that is better than a game made by a bigger team. A small team can make a game with a gameplay that is vastly better than any AAA game. However, to do that, they would have to sacrifice other aspects of the game that elevate games to AAA status. Usually graphics.
Lastly, if you take a look, most indie hit games, even kenshi, are all from the same small pool of genres. You rarely will find, for example, an indie strategy game, much less an indie strategy game that is at the level of an AAA game. In fact, there isn't even any AAA strategy game. The only series that comes even close to the status of AAA is Total War series. So compare an indie strategy Song of Conquest, and Total War Three Kingdoms.