The Global Illumination part of ray tracing (RTGI) is the bit that really makes a difference visually, and you're right, it does in theory allow devs to spend much less time baking in lighting, but it also can look really, really good so I can see why people are pushing for it. In theory the current generation of consoles are a little underpowered for it which is why we've seen a lot of 30fps modes over the last few years, but games ARE starting to appear that use it well "by default" even on console and honestly you can't say that Indiana Jones or Star Wars Outlaws look bad in any way.
If it (a) looks better and (b) allows devs to focus their efforts on other parts of the game than methodically doing manual lighting passes, then it's a good thing. But it might be NEXT gen before it really becomes the accepted way of doing things.
Other M is exactly what it reminds me of.
If you can't run the chatty NPCs over with your motorbike the second they start yapping, then I'm out.
UE5 and Avowed in particular seem to get held up as examples of poor optimisation - is that just a PC thing? Avowed looked and ran great on Xbox, as have other UE5 games like Expedition 33. So it's not a universal thing.
A couple of updated Plays:
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - yes this is good, albeit in a firmly 7/10 way. It's slightly hamstrung by being a canon prequel to Tears of the Kingdom, meaning that only 3 out of 19 characters are ones you'll actually recognise and the rest are generic Gorons, Zora etc. It offers lots of button-mashing fun and the combat system has some great touches this time around but it does err on the easy side meaning it's easy to pick up but also easy to put down. I'm sure I'll see it through but if I'm being honest it's no Hyrule Warriors: DE.
Final Fantasy VII Remake - this, on the other hand, is fantastic and I genuinely don't understand why people are/were so down on it. I played a bit on PS4 when it originally released but revisiting it now on Steam Deck it really is an absolute marvel, a complete reimagining of the (first third of the) original game which somehow manages to change everything from the plot to the combat system yet still feels exactly right. I think it's an incredibly impressive thing.
I think DLSS or similar upscaling / reconstruction is just a given these days, really, for everything. Native 4K is incredibly demanding and honestly not worth aiming for.
Garwoofoo