I think maybe it's because you have different categories that are important to you.
For example, Deus Ex 2 looked pretty decent when it came out, but it was utterly garbage except for the graphics. In
every other category the game failed to be better than Donkey Kong. I am not exaggerating.
But the graphics did look very nice. And so I'm not surprised when a lot of people buy the game.
What about the Avatar movie? It was a billion-dollar CG Pocahontas. It was visually very nice quality, and it sold very well. But if you care more about a deep story and characters, perhaps you would think Avatar was a bad movie.
I guess I'm saying, maybe when you read Twilight you feel like the book is full of garbage. But perhaps the people who like it, enjoy it for reasons you don't appreciate.
Then again maybe a media corp will get ahold of an intellectual property they know will sell well based on psychological profiles of their market demographics, in the same way MMOs are built to be addictive by latching on to well-researched reward centers of your brain. They then edit the IP to conform even more to their "perfect product" profile. Then they maximize sales by advertising heavily, including social media like Facebook and viral content. They pump money into book tours, convention and talk show appearances, and faux documentaries. Enough people get together who like it and you start seeing authentic friend-references where fans convert their friends. Publishers pick the few titles every year that they know will sell well, and take a chance or two on titles that might hit it big from an artist who's willing to sign a bad contract.
...
I saw Johnny Quest. The version I saw wasn't animated in every frame, like old Scooby Doo and Flintstones, so it looks kind of dumb and choppy. And I remember there was a token Middle Eastern dude instead of a token Black American dude.
And ... some kind of cat? The
Target dog?