Depends on the situation. If a player is digging up their NES, then yeah, they should expect to look up outside info or the manual. But if a publisher is releasing an emulated retro collection, they should be the ones to provide the manual and highlight its availability.

I don't think LED's are consistent to wattage in that way. Gotta learn the lumen values.

Nah, dude. The manual is where you get the story and know that the first thing you do is look for dungeon entrances that you're expected to do in a certain order. There's a full guide to reaching the first dungeon, and a map to reach the second. Check it out: www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/...

The hard part is the lack of initial direction, and the info that only exists in the manual.

Not gonna solve it, unfortunately. I own many many controllers. I have one in my desk drawer. I have one sitting on my desk, right now, exactly 5 inches from my mouse. I will still not play a game with a controller unless I like it enough with mouse/kb that it convinces me it's worth the effort.

Totally agree, and I hate how they threw it away in favor of a "sleep" mode on the Switch as the default behavior.

"bank their currency" sounds like a specific form of it, but it sounds like you're generally describing the extraction genre where you constantly decide whether to take on additional risk to get better rewards. It's quite popular.

Something with that little mass can still prevent light from escaping? ... I need to read up a bit

Many reasons why players can be change averse. The Quake example shows a recurring one: unintended mechanic adds an extra facet of mastery, raising the skill ceiling. Players who mastered this tech are resistant to its removal because it nullifies a learned skill. They're mechanically conservative.