Reminds me of this video I watched yesterday when looking for CC content.
We basically have what OP describes already in form of indie studios & games. Mind you, not all of them are the same of course, but many are very much that. But that doesn't really matter, because a game can be so good and created with so much love over so many years, and it can still commercially flop for a huge variety of reasons.

CrossCode is one of those examples. It's an absolutely stunning game, it was a complete surprise hit for me which made me instantly buy into their early access at the time after trying the demo but as good as the game is, and even the ratings for it are, no one actually knows about it - and even less people are actually willing to try it. You have no idea how many times I tried to pitch this to for example Let's Players who enjoyed other character & story driven games, but for them it's a similar situation. They won't pick games that are some sort of underdog, because that would not get them views. But games like this desperately need the exposure to even be seen by people. And people who hear about games like this also need to give them an actual chance. But for the vast majority, if the game isn't coming from a big publisher or studio, they won't even care.

Overall the gaming industry is tremendously fucked. A lot of people predict some sort of implosion happening at some point but I kinda doubt that happens, even though it might be necessary, especially if it takes down some of the giants like EA & Ubisoft, distributing all those developers and licenses into the wild. I believe in the long run it would be better for the industry.