And yet for every one "you", there are thousands of "them" who simply type out a few commands, load the firmware once, and then just play the games.

Maybe two decades ago, there was an article going around about a person who became a commercial pilot thanks to World of Warcraft (WoW improved his English through raids). That doesn't really mean that playing WoW is a good way to become a pilot though.

I suspect that in your case, even without the Gameboy, you'd end up where you are now.