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I used to play games on my computer a lot. Not so much anymore, don't really want to lock myself in a room alone and play games. I have kids and a wife, and it feels isolative.
But those days I would, and often the hardware I had was underpowered to be able to experience the game in its full glory. I would often spend hours and hours just honing settings and config and environment to get the game to run at peak capability on my machine.
At some point, I would reach a zenith. Some perfect arrangement of settings and environment that gave me a game running at top quality on my machine (or as close to top as I could get). The experience for me is joyous. So enjoyable that I often didn't even play the game except maybe to test the boundaries of its performance at that level.
Reading this article made me sad for people who don't put in work for some sort of accomplishment that amounts to nothing. And it made me think of my own experience with it. Accomplishment for its own sake is still accomplishment. And it's still self realization, which is important to existing.