I would consider that you might have a point, if we didn't have Historical evidence of what he was way before he was " less popular ".
we had the entire season one , 4 full episode to see, what is he like when he was sharp, motivated, and passionate.
He didn't need above 5000 render to tell the story, 1000 if not more render alone for just free-roaming. His entire first game was just 5000 render. And he did that while he had full time job, it was almost passion project at that point.
not to mention there are very few dev who has the equipment he had , and has. I think not many can can say they had 8, 3090 graphic card.
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.