Exactly, it's my "make them presentable" procedure, really. I'll never brag about how well they look but they definitely have more presence than plain grey.

And I agree, not all board games have high quality minis unfortunately. But I've rarely encountered any that didn't look better with a primer / base layer, some wash and/or dry brush.

Plus I really enjoy differentiating them a bit by picking hues for the ink and highlights that match the character class or monster type etc. But that is really as far as I'm selling to go nowadays. :)