I agree with much of what you have said here @paulag... and I don't see games as an "investment" UNLESS I happen to be buying stock in a gaming company.
I think we have a couple of things working here:
Because the vast majority of people who are part of the Steem ecosystem came here on the lure of "make money," pretty much everyone here views every activity they are engaged in through the lens of perception of "making money" rather than the lens of perhaps "having fun," or maybe "creativity" or could be "content creation."
The other issue is more global... in an economy where conventional "work" as we know it increasingly being pushed out by automation, more and more people are actively wondering what to do and that perhaps includes more of a perspective of how to monetize my leisure time.
And so... there's this constant scanning the horizon for whether the next experience can be turned into an investment.
Which — at least from where I'm sitting — is a very sad reflection on where the world is heading...
I think you are right, people are here on the lure of money and there still is the perception of making money. I said something simiar on a comment to samotonakatoshi post when I read it. we have a lot of work to do to change that perception and its going to take a long time. Untill then the winners will see them selves as amazing investors while the losers keep losing