Sure there are tradeoffs but they still are concrete decisions. Do I care about X or Y more.
Making a game fun is a bit of a black art. A little more juice (screen shake/SFX/etc) can make the exact same experience otherwise a lot more fun. An interesting recent example of this for me is playing Witchfire, a 1st person single player extraction shooter that just came to steam in early access. One of the bolt action guns once you level it up makes a bell sound with every headshot that makes it feel incredibly epic, along with the benefits headshots give for that gun.
Making a game fun is a bit of a black art. A little more juice (screen shake/SFX/etc) can make the exact same experience otherwise a lot more fun. An interesting recent example of this for me is playing Witchfire, a 1st person single player extraction shooter that just came to steam in early access. One of the bolt action guns once you level it up makes a bell sound with every headshot that makes it feel incredibly epic, along with the benefits headshots give for that gun.