I think some of us lament the loss of certain genres. Turn based strategy, flight sims, space sims, turn based RPGS. I stopped playing games in the mid 2000. There haven't really been any games in my favourite genres since then.
Of those, XCOM is the only game that exists. Star Citizen, Project Infinity, Torment Tides and Wasteland 2 are all Kickstarter-funded games in development. Kerbal is available, but not finished, and as you say, not really a game.
Sure, there are some interesting games in development (I'd add the Elite remake and Double Fine's untitled adventure game to the list), but who knows what they will be like. We don't know if they will be "quality".
It's noteworthy indeed that a lot of these kinds of games are now out or upcoming, but it's equally notable that a year ago this conversation would have ended rather differently.
