Well having subpar graphics only works when you have an idea that makes up for this. Minecraft is such an example as this game is pretty much impossible to do with any engine out in the field as you want voxels rather than polygons. So you trade-in rather crappy graphics for a gameplay that wouldn't otherwise be possible...

Apart from that we shouldn't talk about such phenomena. Otherwise we all would come done to "Flappy Bird" complexity of gameplay as this obviously seems to be sufficient...

In my opinion what one needs is a sufficient technical basis for your game. 3DGS rarely has what one would expect as a minimum though plus with the recent developments in engine licensing costs there's little left that should hold you here ... which also is why this forum has seen a more and more diminishing activity over the past few years. Being able to code in Lite-C means you have a good understanding of a C-like language in general so just go ahead and pick an engine of your choice - it's not like things have culminated in just one engine to go for all with alienating scripting languages. You'll also find solutions to appease gamers with limited GPU capabilities - you don't need to stick to a bare bones, pretty much a decade behind (its editors even more like two decades behind) engine like 3DGS for these kinds of customers...

I mean it's not like I'm trying to say creating a successful game with 3DGS is impossible but for the general kind of user I see no reason to stick to 3DGS. Even finding an exception to this where 3DGS might be the better option is very hard to do. It's pretty much just childhood memories which hold this engine & this forum together...