Why remasters became more profitable than new games
Production costs outran the average price. Doing the maths on re-releases.
Building a large game has become roughly three times more expensive over ten years. The average price of a copy rose by half in the same period, and not everywhere. The gap was covered by volume, and volume hit a ceiling.
A re-release solves the equation from the other side. It does not create a world, it repairs one: higher resolution, rewritten lighting, sometimes new voice work. The team is an order of magnitude smaller, the schedule a year instead of five.
A re-release risks nothing but reputation. Which is exactly why it is so easy to ruin.
The trouble is that the economics reward minimum effort. If sales depend on recognition rather than on the quality of the work, a cheap port beats an expensive restoration. The difference between those two things is the only thing worth arguing about.