"and in many cases it is one of many silent contributing factors to a noticeable decrease in the quality of their game"
Game designers are not so constrained anymore by the limits of the hardware, unless they want to push boundaries. Quality of a game is not just the most efficient runtime performance - it is mainly a question if the game is fun to play. Do the mechanics work. Are there severe bugs. Is the story consistent and the characters relatable. Is something breaking immersion. So ... frequent stuttering because of bad programming is definitely a sign of low quality - but if it runs smooth on the targets audience hardware, improvements should be rather done elsewhere.
Game designers are not so constrained anymore by the limits of the hardware, unless they want to push boundaries. Quality of a game is not just the most efficient runtime performance - it is mainly a question if the game is fun to play. Do the mechanics work. Are there severe bugs. Is the story consistent and the characters relatable. Is something breaking immersion. So ... frequent stuttering because of bad programming is definitely a sign of low quality - but if it runs smooth on the targets audience hardware, improvements should be rather done elsewhere.