>I want to become the adult I believed I could be. I want video games to become something that helps me change instead of giving me a place to hide
This is a growing and misguided sentiment. Being absorbed in and obsessed with video games is the problem, not the content of the games! If you want to grow up you need to collide with the real world. No game is going to become the driver of adulthood. The answer here is to subtract games from your life and go live in the world. Unfortunately there is an "art game" movement indulging in delusions that the right kind of game can rise above the level of crass entertainment and "nourish" the player. This is garbage. You can imbibe the most clever and interest art in the world, but only living in the real world can teach you about the real world. Even education is dangerously "gamified". The difference there is that the world is rigged with many favors for educated people, so you don't have much choice.
>You could say that about any new product. Here! Use this cellphone! What? The battery can explode when it overheats? Don't worry about it! Almost never happens!
If the battery explodes you will know about it. Each explosion will be an independent, isolated event. They will not all blow up at once. A better analogy would appeal to concerns over EM radiation from cell phones. In that case, it turned out to be harmless - at least in terms of cancer risk. And that single, highly-controllable factor took years to validate for safety.
>Is there even a plant out there that has harmful side-effects two decades after you eat it?
Gluten sensitivity can take years to show up, and months to get better after you've cut it out of your diet. For years doctors dismissed patients who claimed to be suffering from wheat allergies. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
As someone who is totally dependent on a gluten-free diet to avoid constant sickness, the idea of people tinkering with food proteins is horrifying. If it's employed for very particular, controlled reasons then so be it. But there is the potential for immense hubris here. Note that when I went to the doctor some years ago and told them I was sure bread was making me sick they told me I was wrong because I tested negative for Celiac disease.