I’m sure Crazy Taxi provides the same benefits! :)

The thing about taxi drivers is that they have something at stake, while video games have no fail state effectively. You can be punished in-game, but overall it does not matter.

Also video games in general are pretty derivative, so playing the same genre probably won't help much after a certain point. But playing different ones can be very helpful, I imagine (same with other mediums).

Maybe when played at a high level. But too many games are too casual without much mental effort.

I mean, they should be. Games are for fun, not for work.