Even seemingly simple games are clocking in at 100GB+ in disk space. I think in terms of performance many games are setting the floor at the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck, often ripping out features to get it to run on those platforms (CIV6, 2k etc).
This is one reason I really admired Valheim (~1GB). Though even that game had CPU issues (also its an indie title so...).
I'm aware of large AAA games taking up that much space (Doom Eternal, Red Dead Redemption 2) but they could hardly be considered "simple". Do you have examples of what you're talking about?
NBA2k is over 100GB. Sports games seem to do this a lot. It’s obviously due to the art assets that AAA roll out but there’s gotta be some way to trim the fat or at least do it incrementally.
This is one reason I really admired Valheim (~1GB). Though even that game had CPU issues (also its an indie title so...).