Some time ago I didn't understand this, I was making comparisons between quite big titles with some other game that maybe wasn't so big but weighed much more. Then I understood what you explain here about the weight of the graphic quality. Although I also think that in some cases companies are somewhat to blame for not optimizing their games well.
Starfield scares me hahaha, I usually put everything heavy on my 1TB HDD, but maybe I should clean it up a bit before it arrives 😅.
we are two, I also didn't understand very well about the textures and how the whole process of putting together a videogame worked, I also agree that starfield scares me