I don't think it's rose colored glasses, but neither do I think gaming industry is becoming more and more focused around ROI. AAA titles developed by large companies certainly in most cases are like that, but the gaming industry is much bigger than a few corporations releasing titles with the speed of machine gun.

There are hundreds of indie developers and I believe this is where most of the innovation can be found. In that regard it is the same as in the "good old days", before the arrival of AAA corporations.