@thoughtpunks That first point is exactly the kind of thing that you have to spell out, because it's turned from an assertion of "I can do this thing" to "I'm sure somebody else can do this thing" and anyone who's ever had to deal with arguments of the "I'm sure somebody else can do this thing" form can only reply with "they've had thousands of years to do so; if they were going to do so, it would have been done by now."
There is clearly a reason that we are not doing collectively better which is unrelated to the amount of academic masturbation going on in the level of discourse. As for popular and commercial success not being correlated with skill, talent, or understanding thereof… Only in a one off situation.
The moment they can do it twice, it's correlated. Once can be an accident. Twice? Power.
I disagree with your underlying asserted axiom that increased levels of academic ludological discourse would have a positive effect on the discussions that go on or the games that get created in the wake thereof. Observationally, I would say the opposite.