Gaming is not beneath me. It's just that I've largely have lost interest towards modern games and I can't really embrace the past ones either - life only goes forward, after all. There's always a few games that tickle my fancy, and spending 2-4 hours a week on those is typically enough.

The argument for "growing out of gaming" is stupid as fuck - anything outside securing your survival is a waste of time. No, making more money to buy nicer things is not survival, it's excess. Time is the only currency with any weight in this world and as a limited resource retains it's value. If you're having a good and/or meaningful time, it's time well spent. If you have regrets after putting time into something, maybe you need to re-evaluate your choices. Personally I feel that slaving away for Mr. Shekelberg for some additional jew notes of diminishing value is one of the worst things one can do with their time, but people like different things - who am I to judge? Some people appear to love their slavery and couldn't imagine their lives without it.