Pro FPS players consistently choose monitors with the highest refresh rates available.
This informal experiment is quite convincing
Does High FPS make you a better gamer?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX31kZbAXsA
A 60hz refresh rate corresponds to 16.67 milliseconds frame time, and a 240hz rate corresponds to 4.2 milliseconds.
The issue here is not reaction time, but "feel". Even a moderately skilled player can test this for themselves by switching between refresh rates. Specifically the "feel" is the relationship between moving the mouse and the shift of perspective on the screen. Low refresh rates cause players to over correct their aim as the gaps between frames are larger, and the motion on the screen is less smooth.
Even then, if the market is restricted to non-competitive players, that's a huge majority of the market.
Of course, modern games are built around expecting a lot more latency in the system, but having your input a frame behind to start with, before adding render time, encoding time, decoding time, and then display processing makes for a tough experience.
I think this is the most important part of the ordeal: lower latency/shorter input-stimuli loop feels better and games are all about feeling good.
I wonder how Google of all players missed it because back in 2010s they were talking how fractional second delays hurt click metrics.
Or - and this is the kicker - in an area that has lots of Stadia users. Which makes sense - more load, more demand = service gets worse. But that means that you end up with a messed up "regional playability" curve, where the best experience - if not the only good experience - is had by people in areas close enough to the servers, but where Stadia is not too popular as to be overloaded.
That particular caveat has gotten better over time, from what I understand. Throw more hardware at the problem, open more datacenters in the same region, and that helps deal with load. But it certainly left a well-deserved poor first-impression for many people.