Honestly, I feel like a lot of that was backlash to the insane number of Russians using cheats and hacks in Counter Strike, Ghost Recon, and Call of Duty. I played a lot around 2000-2010, and more often than not, if a match was ridiculously tilted, it was a Russian or Chinese player using wallhacks.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I was almost done with the game before I realized you leveled up in camps and inns. Game went from really hard to pushover easy in 5 minutes.
I would say Rebel Galaxy and especially Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw, which reminds me of Wing Commander: Privateer for the “Good game with little recognition”.
For the “Objectively bad but I still love it” type, Lichdom: Battlemage and Technomancer are deeply flawed but wonderfully fun gems that require you to ignore some pretty big problems to find your enjoyment in them. Same with DarkStar One and the Starpoint Gemini series.
Fuck Yeah, Video Games: The Life and Extra Lives of a Professional Nerd by Daniel Hardcastle.