I'm sorry but you are simply throwing statements hoping that they stick or are accurate to game development. If my actual game design (AI models, point of view, character speed, physics) requires a certain data transfer then one has to fundamentally change the gameplay systems to work on slower hardware.
Are we now talking about the jump from HDD to SSD or SSD vs SSD?
Because the latter can be overcome with smart level design (using the same assets) or lowering the asset quality at first. Would result in more pop in.
With these techniques bandwidth can be saved, because you can either fill RAM with more data (because the quality is lower) or don't need as much bandwith, because the assets (the same tree used several times for example) will remain in RAM and don't need to be pulled from SSD again.
Yes, there are drawbacks, but not from an gameplay perspective. By the way, for AI, physics, ... an CPU&GPU still matters more and any data you can throw at the CPU&GPU needs to be dealt with.
All I will say further is that we had flying games before SSDs. If your game must contain flying, you find the technical workaround to prevent it looking bad or at least from having an obvious gameplay impact
Finding an workaround only gets you so far, when the jump between HDD and SSD is so significant these days.
As you said flying already exists in games, but these games sacrifice details at the ground and don't have an very high travel speed. Just like racing games don't have track/level detail as good as an top Shooter or RPG.
At the end of the day it worked, just like slow transitions like elevator or loading screen worked. But developers had to put a lot of thought into designing levels. This is about to change with SSD and it'll open up new possibilities.
Examples:
- Going from space to an station on an planet without loading.
- Flashbacks rendered in real time without loading, depending on your choices in an conversation
- increased speed while maintaining good graphics
- teleportation to an different area as an gameplay element.
Some of the stuff could be done before in a way. Like the flashbacks for example, but you wouldn't be able to interact as an player.
This is a new possibility just like teleportation. After all having an annoying 30 sec loading screen everytime you port to an different point is annoying. Even more so, if this is an fighting skill.
Those possibilities sound interesting imo and i am excited, but obviously the rest of the hardware needs to be up to the task. But still having an SSD in there will help developer massively and consumers will benefit, too.