And did the concept of "AAA" truly exist back then? Let alone "AAAA"? It's not really a good benchmark, imo.

That's just their nature: they are very inexpensive to make. The original question was whether people find them fun and engaging. Clearly they did in the past. Though nowadays their standards have risen a lot. Even graphical adventure games (like Monkey Island) have long fallen out of favor due to a lack of action elements.