Quite often, an indie game throws together some common gameplay, like roguelike shooter patterns, with little to explain it. eg, "You're here to explore for treasure!" Other times, even AAA games go this route, assuming most players won't care about the base story premise.
But there seems to be a significant contrast to well-developed worlds; like seeing the progressive cruelty of the Nazis in Wolfenstein before you start stabbing them, or seeing the Gommage in Expedition 33 before heading out to fight nevrons. Even more eldritch action-oriented games like DOOM benefited from establishing a "mood" of the Slayer being angry at demons and anyone who ignored warnings of them using just a few quick cutscenes.
This can be a bit of divergence from a game being "story-focused" or building up detailed lore. Some such games are often bad at motivation because the "story" is so confusing to players, most would just admit "I'm just going wherever bosses are to advance the story." Some very dialogue-heavy games don't necessarily captivate players on this level, since motivation can often be very simple. It goes back to the age-old strategy of arcade Donkey Kong; having 10 seconds at the beginning of the game where DK captures a princess who calls for help. The early version of the game likely didn't even have that, and the designer felt motivation was missing. (That decision spawned its own issue, the Damsel in Distress trope, but that's another topic)
As more conceptual ideas, and especially more perpetual live-service games, become more popular, I see this element of gaming going missing at all ranks of game development - which is a shame, because I think when written creatively, there are ways to set up player motivation through relatively few voice lines and short cutscenes; something going beyond "You are an amnesiac! This voice is telling you where to go. Don't die to The Corporation!!"
To drive discussion: What are some games you bounced off of, that you think may have been because they were missing motivation? What games found you putting up with a mediocre gameplay experience because you were invested in the given story turnout?
My thought is that if one of the main appeals of the game is (meant to be) the story, the story better be both good and well-told (which I learnt is not the same, see Genshin). For games where the main appeal is the gameplay, I'm more inclined to tolerate a barebones or trope-fest story.
I think I only experienced this in point & click adventure games, where the story must be good to prop up the enjoyment value along the more lightweight gameplay.
I think it's usually the other way around for me lol, where I put up with a below-mediocre story bc the gameplay is fun. Usually if the story is so well-written that I really want to see how it ends, the devs put effort into making the game's other aspects good too, so I haven't seen the kind of imbalance you speak of in the genres I play. Maybe if I played shooters or platformers, it would be more prevalent 🤷