Yeah, indeed. Game developers are definitely getting lazier. This has been going on for ages. But as a programmer, I can reflect on a few things:
- Often times, faster load times = larger file sizes. Not always, but it's often a trade off.
- Being able to be lazy takes the focus off of having to constantly fix annoying bugs and worry about a million different things, which allows programmers/designers/etc. to focus on other things, like new features, better design, and just making a better game. It's no secret that everyone has a budget, and everything is run by money. So unfortunately, there's often a trade off between increasing frame rates and making a better playing game, otherwise.
- Regardless, there's absolutely no excuse for a heavily bugged release. If a game comes out bugged from the beginning on a vast number of systems, it either wasn't properly tested, or they knew about the issues and released it anyways. I would imagine the latter is a lot more common. The developers say "it's not ready" but the business executives release it anyways is probably most likely.