However the alternative is making your own stack which for small devs is more resources then you may have. Instead of spending time developing the tech that's core you have to create a backend. I had a project on parse but it isn't very successful so I'm letting it die instead of migrating. If it was successful I would have the time & money to migrate it.
It's not really a new phenomena. Look back in the 70s or 80s with arcades, people would stand around watching their friends play. Then later young people went to each others houses and played video games (mostly multiplayer but some single player and watched).
It's entertaining watching how other people do things. They might play differently than how you would play it.