If a game looks really good, but has abysmal ratings, I tend to first look around what people are complaining about. Usually there is a truly fatal flaw. Other than that, ratings are more like a curiosity I acknowledge exists, but largely ignore.
If it weren't for the awful technical aspects and the overall pretty ugly models, this would be quite nice. The way it actually is, it's such a mixed bag.
Space Journey X is a pretty bad offender to the point that the dev added so many skips to get back to where you were to compensate. It's a shame too, because the game has a number of things going for it. When I first ran into it, I dropped the game for a substantial amount of time.
As long as it's well made, either is fine. Having custom 2D art seems less limiting though. There are a number of games that feel very much like they are written around whatever 3D assets the author had access to, which isn't usually a thing with 2D.
I take breaks from games like these rather frequently, so it's not really a choice to wait for multiple updates rather than a natural consequence of only checking in every once in a while.
I find the "immersive sim" label to be somewhat confused. I know what kind of games people mean when they say it, but if you think about it, it can be applied to a vast number of games that fall way outside of it. Is Half-Life 2 an immersive sim, because you can solve a number of problems by...
So many RPGM games try everything to avoid being RPGM games, which then leads to the question: Why even use RPGM? The only ones I like are those which actually build something around oldschool RPG combat, like The Moral Sword of Asagi. These are really rare though.
Another issue, though this is...
Classic situation. So many games randomly disappear for no real discernible reason while others somehow make it through unscathed. The inconsistency is the worst.
Free Cities, unless I am forgetting something. For mainstream games, maybe one of the Megaten entries. Definitely not Fallout, though if I had to pick one in that series, the first one would be my choice.
Were you part of the Yakuza and have a fancy dragon or a Hannya mask on your back? Then I'm okay with it. Most tattoos are utter trash though and just such a red flag. Ink is not a good personality replacement.
Ren'py by a mile. I can tolerate Unity for a great game I guess, but the company behind it is crazy and I'd encourage developers to not tie themselves to them. If you need more than a VN engine, biting the bullet and learning how to work with Godot seems preferable. At least you know they won't...
Petplay through Amy's Fantasies potentially. I am not sure exactly anymore, since it has been so long, but it's the oldest related memory I can think of. It was just a throwaway scene too...
That's the same issue a lot of games with ripped porn clips have, but people are more lenient with those. Personally I have no issue with AI art in games based on principles, but a lot of the games using it seem to be really ill-conceived and amount to little more than spam.