>As for your other point, there are objectively very few (if any) topics as interesting as games for CS people, given the so many areas of CS (and non-CS) they encompass at the same time. Hardly any other area of work touches so many domains. Only operating systems, browsers and CAD apps (and maybe Emacs ;) are close as vast.

What is interesting is subjective, and I am not going to seriously tell anyone what is interesting or not. But there are certainly areas in CS with just as much or more breadth and depth than game development. As someone who works in AI now, I would say it covers even more areas of CS, and requires more math.

There is also computer security, which can be as high level as web app security, or as abstract as the number theory powering cryptography.

I love game development, and games, but it is a bit disingenuous to hold game development up as being the ultimate discipline in CS. It is certainly not.