There were lots of games back then. And many of them were as bad or worse than the shittiest shovelware and template swaps we've got today.

Thing is, most people don't remember the 200 Action Games 3 disc pack at the bottom of the bargain bin cause they sucked.

I'm not disputing that there is more "stuff" these days by raw numbers, with the barrier to creation and distribution of games and such dramatically lowered by ubiquitous and easy to use tooling. But I bet the ratios of good games to shitty games won't have changed too terribly much over the years.