Moore's law is unabated. Progress is as fast as ever before.
I didn't mean to imply that computer hardware has stopped progressing, only that gaming hardware (or requirements) have. I'm sure the difference between subsequent generations of graphics cards today is as big as it ever was, but it was unheard of in 2005 that you could be playing the latest game on a VGA that's 3 or 4 generations old.
I agree with the rest of the post though. Perhaps it's not the plataue in gaming hardware caused by the consoles, though you must admit it helps, in addition to the fixed configuration of the system allowing for optimisation.
As for the subtle differences, that's exactly what I meant when I said "... current graphics offering close to the limit of the average person can distinguish in terms of fidelity". More polygons and shaders and whatever else they're pumping out is great, but 10 years ago games were still trying to get the obvious stuff right.
Either way, the fact remains that a 2000 PC can't play games made in 2005, but a 2006 PC can play today's and that's noteworthy.
Is it me or are we going really off topic?