you're putting too much thought into it and looking for some perceived value. Playing video games is fun and enjoyable and no different from spending hours going hiking, or riding a bike or any of countless other hobbies people do and enjoy . How is walking to a top of a hill producing anything of value that you can be proud of?

People spend months training for a marathon, why? People have been running long distances since the beginning of time. you're literally training for something the human body was designed to do. They should use that energy to learn a new language or build a business right?

The issue is, as you said using video games as an escape. That's where it's a problem and that's fine. it's good that you reconize that it's a trigger for you and you can't just game as say, a hobby but it makes me salty that so many people spend hours and shit tons of money on their hobbies and things they enjoy or come home from work and sit down to surf facebook, watch netflix or any of the other shit people do after work for hours before bed but somehow if you do it with gaming, it's a waste of time and produces nothing of value.