I get where you're coming from, but the sad fact is when politics infest entertainment to the point the politics become more important than the entertainment it becomes propaganda.
There certainly is politics in quality games as far back as Metal Gear Solid, and as recently as Baldur's Gate 3... but Veilguard and Sweet Baby Inc influenced games are on the other side of the paradyme.
The question is ballance, and if it can be subtle at best, maybe balanced... but then it becomes overbearing to the point you're receiving a lecture in a game you paid damn good money to play.
And I believe games in Australia are a shitload, right?
I don't consider political messaging inherently a negative. I mean I love Cold War Scifi, and plenty that was far from subtle with it's political messaging.
I even enjoy FPS games (modern or WWII) that are full of corny flag waving Americana, and that doesn't exactly align with my personal tastes or politics, although my enjoyment there is more about the game mechanics than any narrative.
Sure, if it's overly preachy that's going to detract from my enjoyment, but even though you get the occasional JRPGS that can have wall-of-text exposition, it's not exactly the norm for gaming to have "Atlas Shrugged" style 33899 word political monologues.
I wouldn't get a game like Dustborn, because the characters, world building and gameplay don't appeal to me. Presumably I'm not their target audience. It looks like it was aimed at young Americans, raised on a consumer diet of Marvel Movies and Glee. I guess it's good that scifi gaming is now big enough to have a diversity of niche products.
"Top surgery" scars and no arse in custom character creators in a AAA fantasy RPG, or gender pronouns for robots in hero shooters, just has me laughing at the ridiculousness of the zeitgeist.
Personally I think "Culture War signalling" is a non-issue compared to things about current gaming that actually annoy me, like personal
data mining, pay to win micro-transactions, strictly "live service" games or games that have a "full release" in less than a beta state and then take years to finish (I still haven't played Cyberpunk 2077, despite the VR mods and DLC supposedly almost shaping up to the pre-launch hype, and open world cyberpunk action adventure being absolutely my style of game).
The odd thing about Veilguard is that, even selecting independent reviewers that ignore the American culture war, the opinions are still starkly contrasting.
Including about my main concern of whether
Bioware has made any sort of comeback.
I think games are cheap personally, but then I remember buying the boxed game of Elite in 1987 (think I've still got it somewhere) and it costing me $60AUD back then.
As a point of reference, COD Black Ops 6 is $110 AUD and the mean hourly wage here is now $39.50 AUD.