Nothing is going to change, because consumers are not going to change.
It's trickier than you think.
Consumers do change, not because they revolutionise themselves at some point, but simply because a new generation emerge with people becoming old enough to be considered as main consumers.
I'm slowing heading to my late 30's, I grew up owning a SNES, a Playstation 1 and 2, I remember using CD and even floppy disks (yes !) to enjoy PC games.
My favorite games were Another World, Secret of Evermore, Metroïd, Tekken 3, Street Fighter Alpha, Ridge Racer Type 4, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, also Baldur's Gate 1, Age of Empire III, Civilzation Call to Power, World of Warcraft, Counter Strikes (when my internet connexion was actually working...) and SO many more.
I'm pretty sure this can sound very boomer-ish for Fortnite or Word of Warcraft (retail version) gamers. Couldn't care less, I genuinely feel blessed.
I guess the main difference between what I could call
"my generation" and the actual one (even the next ones ?) is the fact I've been bottle-fed with finished games to enjoy with siblings and friends on a sofa.
I've seen the rise of connected consoles and platforms where you had to create an account and log in, in order to play a game, with online achievements and new fancy stuff. And I have also seen the decay of physical version of games in favor virtual ones to download, until it turned into a norm and updates became mandatory.
And slowly, a whole new population arrived, knowing only things like Steam, Playstation 3 and 4 (even 5 ?), microtransactions, pre-orders, unfinished games endlessly updated and so on.
So yeah, you are right,
"consumers are not going to change", but it's just because they are part of a generation that doesn't know any other way to appreciate video games, as mine as its own marks.
Ironicaly, my generation also has a big responsability in all of this since there are good chances many current games are developped by people from...my generation.
From my POV the game industry obviously shapes consumers. I'm not missing proper finished games because I'm some kind of maniac, but because things used to be like that for most of my childhood.
I suppose the responsability of developpers, editors or whatever isn't to release good/finished games only, but also to
"educate" (don't like this word, but didn't find a better alternative at the moment, sorry for this) the generations to come by giving them not just what they are willing to give them, but the best they can give them. Good planning and less greed might be a good start.
Yes, I'm 100% aware of the naivety of this statement, no need to remind it.
And for what it worth, since I'm the OP here, I also came back to say that I value discussions, debates and interesting ideas, rather than another
"oh you HATER" GIF. Just saying...
Cheers