These are terrible defenses for video games. For one, The Wire wasn't the first fantastically written TV show. Narrative in games has also been around for what, 35 years now? Video game writers also have the benefit of decades in great writing in other media that narratively functions a lot like video games. It's just that most of the people who write video games just aren't very good writers.
That's a terrible counter argument.
The Wire wasn't the first fantastically written TV show, however the reason it stood out and stands out still is that there were very, very few that were. Mostly because the medium didn't benefit from strong narrative arcs and needed quick resolutions to simplified conflicts that didn't challenge the audience at the time because that's what they thought people wanted. It's taken time, different distribution types and people willing to take risks with money to get it to that.
Not all video game writers have background in other mediums and having that background isn't going to help much due to the differences between mediums. The audience engagement factor is certainly different between a TV show and the interaction a game provides. TV doesn't require input to move the narrative along, while video games do, and how that input is done and how they make that a part of the story is also very different than telling a story in a book, movie or tv show. Much like how a movie adaptation of a book can lose something in the translation the differences between those and video games is even larger and a more difficult struggle.
Not to mention that with Television there isn't a complete generational technology change. We're still dealing with the uncanny valley of humans in games and visual story telling requires unspoken moments of expression that don't feel like awkward digital puppetry. TV, book and movie writers aren't beholden to make narrative sense out of different game mechanics and don't need to awkwardly throw in a tutorial for new viewers.
I mean I'm with you that video game writing in general sucks. I say that as someone who loves storytelling in all forms. But it doesn't all suck and I can think of several games that have managed to do it well in their specific medium that would be nearly impossible to do otherwise. Brothers for example. As someone who reads a lot of Sci Fi I consider Horizon Zero Dawn to blow out most other recent Sci-Fi stories I've read or watched recently, and those I think are better just means I put it on par with those. Chrono Trigger, FFVI, and so on. While it's rare to get a game that's written well it's also because like TV the major investors want something that doesn't challenge their audiences, that is easily digestible and generic enough to appeal to multiple demographics on top of the technical limitations of the medium.
Video Games don't need a version of The Wire, they need The Sopranos, something that was so successful due to it's storytelling and high production values made the market try and chase its success.
That doesn't mean that we should give up on storytelling in video games because a lot of the writing is bad instead of having higher expectation for the writing of video games as a whole.