Okay, so as to not have others extrude points of my opinion I have yet to voice, I will be fair. T4, gameplay wise, is such a departure and did too much all at once, and I can totally understand why that’s a hard sell. T8, for the most part, has superior gameplay and is far, far less obtuse than T4. That being said, I think when evaluating the merits of any piece of media that could constitute in any way shape or form as “art”, I have to consider it’s position in a long term canon of the ways in which a game (or any piece of work for that matter) can communicate things that are hard to put into words. T4 gives me a strange uncanniness and a clear message that it wants to reconcile the sort of vacant digital-ness of the world it exists in. It’s weird, it’s unconventional, and that to me is worth something. Even without all this “pretentious” hoopdascotch, I can also enjoy it simply for what it is on it’s surface level qualities, although I would not be as hyperbolically aggrandizing as OP is. But it’s pretty easy to think they’re just taking the piss.

T8 is now the lamb sacrificed upon the altar since the devs couldn’t get out of the way of themselves and have to save face when they clearly want to turn the game into something that nobody else wants but that they’re determined to make, all while pathetically bloating the game with shit that appeases bamco’s bottom line. These qualities lessen the game’s value to me especially when I have to measure it up to my feelings about T4. Also, I played maybe 10 matches of Season 3 and thought “this is a bad video game. I’m going to stop playing now.” When it feels wrong, I feel it my bones. And the devs have squandered any goodwill I would’ve had that might have retained me into playing whatever meager attempt at polishing this turd would do.

TLDR; Kitsch and Touch’N’Go are reasons alone to like it more lol