I just don’t see how games that don’t meet QA requirements and subsequently aren’t shelved are in any way comparable to every game on the market today…

I mean I never had to encounter those bugs, games that weren’t shelved didn’t exist in any meaningful way because nobody spent money on them. But nearly every game I buy and play today has serious bugs on day 1 (and many still have them on day 300). That feels like a different paradigm to me.