> If you put out a genuine banger and took the time to market it in advance, you should get noticed.

The emphasized part of this quote is probably far more important than you give credit for.

I imagine a lot of solo game devs simply don't have the money to pay for marketing, and with many communities having rules against self-promotion, combined with the latest Discord phishing scam being "Hey can you try my game?" and delivering a trojan, it can be hard to get your game in front of people. Even if you're in a community for game devs, most of members are there to get people to play their game, not someone looking for a game to try.

I bet there are some real diamonds out there, hidden in obscurity, lost in the landfill of early attempts at making a game.