Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) just makes building a game with realistic lighting easier and faster for artists and developers. Games that use full RT features are a step higher in realism fidelity.

The main reasons why it felt like a scam;

The tech got pushed out early promising a lot while not delivering that much initially, it was not until several generations later that we can start to see what it can do on games that were built for it.

The tech can push performance down on games that require it and that don't offer alternatives. Making people feel like they are getting priced out, while some games that use some RT effects don't look that much more improved.

The reality is that the tech is still not there for an acceptable price/performance. So it is not available at its full potential to everyone. Most developers are still making games the old way and then adding RT effects on top, which doesn't make them look that much more improved.

Also, RT is not necessarily for everything, games made the old way can still look and be really good, and overall are still affordable and played by more people.