>There aren't many games from that era that are as infinitely replayable.
I think A lot of games from that era were infinitely replayable. Diablo, Sim City. It really is the case we dont made them like that any more. The amount of small details that goes into it. Not just the games itself, but also the packaging, manual and things surrounding.
It is somewhat strange that group of people grow up and start producing in the 90s still have the attention to detail mind set. This is mostly gone in modern Gen Z generation.
The market has evolved, thats true but you have whole indie scene which is close to those values. Ie for management strategies there is Factorio.