This is something I've always struggled with. When people rave about Mass Effect and The Witcher and New Vegas and so on, there's always this massive appreciation for how early choices affect the end in subtle ways. Don't you realize that because you told that character to keep their chin up in the first discussion of the game, they have a more positive outlook in the end sequence?
No, I almost never do. I'm reasonably intelligent, I don't listen to podcasts or have any distractions while gaming, but being an adult, a 40 hour game will take me over a month. I usually don't remember exactly the decisions I chose, and sometimes I don't even remember the character.
Yet for people who love these games, these instances of your choices affecting the outcome are a transcendent experience. These fans tend to look down on linear games because the feeling of affecting the game world is so good that you can't go back to simple JRPGs after that.
Usually when I read the Wiki for these games for all the decisions with outcomes, I'm amazed at how detailed and varied they are. But for almost each one, I think "I literally would not have recognized I affected this if I didn't have the Wiki open. I usually conclude that I may as well play a polished linear game than a slightly more janky "choices matter" game.
How do people do it? Are you supposed to play these games in a more compressed time frame? Are you supposed to have the Wiki open as you play? How do people get so much joy out of recognizing that their choices are making a difference?