The existence of human irrationality is the easy part. The hard part is arguing that an experience involving choices is inherently higher-quality. The fact that Thief gives you plot-relevant choices doesn't make it any more the real experience of being a thief, except in the trivial sense that real life feels like it involves making choices. Likewise for all those examples. If you want to claim that the experience is lower or higher quality, you need an argument for that beyond your own subjective opinion (which is naturally biased in favour of games from your childhood).
Yes, this. It's hard to make arguments about quality of experience when every step of the way there's many uncertain variables and your best evidence comes from personal experience (that most likely wasn't shared by the person you're trying to convince).
