What games "only play correctly on obscenely expensive hardware"? According to the top google result, the most demanding game is cyberpunk 2077. It doesn't require a 40xx, 30xx, or 20xx, or even a 10xx series card - it requires a gtx 780, and recommends a 1060. Even the recommended card series was released the better part of a decade ago.

And there are other comments here that they can run pretty much everything fine on a pre-10xx series card: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/115a172/ultraenthusiast_hardware_is_strangling_pc_gaming/j94xshs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3