Honestly, a profoundly weird experience that I had recently... was playing Dragonstrike (released in 1992 I think?) for DOS, for the first time.

Objectively this game is the very definition of 'limited by the technology of its time'. It's a flight sim made before a mouse was a standard computer accessory. I think the biggest in-game sprites are maybe 50 by 50 pixels. It's outstandingly difficult to play.

And yet... compared to modern games, when I'm playing this, it really just hits me over and over again how they made every single decision correctly. The game has an excellent premise. The storytelling may be simple but it's good. The core gameplay loop is fun, and your kit feels like it's complete and well-made, and there's no stupid gacha mechanics or grinding or oversexualized poster girl or daily quests to try and force you to play X amount of hours. It's just for fun. And it IS fun, despite the most unbelievably dated graphics I've ever seen. If this game was made just a few years later, it would've been outstanding.