No, the promise was for AAA games, including day-one releases.
If you "never would have bought a game" in the first place, then it means it's not a game for you. You'd rather play something else. But you now are forcing yourself to play the game only because it popped up on your gaming subscription for a limited time.
It's classic FOMO and Stockholm syndrome.
Gaming is supposed to be fun and exciting and hype, eagerly anticipating a game that you have wanted to play for a long time and finally have a chance to play it. It's not supposed to be "I would never have played this game, but I didn't have anything to play, so I played it, and it was fine, I guess."
I can still get hyped for games I’ve wanted to play for a long time? And buy them? How does GamePass prevent that?
I don’t really care what you think GamePass “promised” or how it can be used. For me it’s a service that gives me access to loads of games I wouldn’t have tried otherwise, because of the cost barrier. Doesn’t mean a game “isn’t for me”. That’s dumb. I’ve actually bought games that are in GamePass because they were great and I wanted to support the dev.
Your viewpoint here is shallow and unsurprisingly jaded