You kind of point out the issue and reason in your post.rainwarrior wrote:I don't think it was a misinterpretation, really, but people are saying a lot of different things about it at once. Looking back in the thread, the specific suggestion seems to have started as "engines like Unity and Gamemaker do this..." but everyone's got a slightly different angle on it. Maybe nobody was saying that specifically...
I just think it's absurd if you try to think about Unity forcing a splash screen on their users if they thought it was supposed to mark low quality games. That would be insane. Conversely it seems equally absurd to me to request that NES Maker have a splash screen for that purpose.
Unity puts splash screens on their games to advertise their product. Also their engine is free to try, and you can buy a license to be able to replace that splash screen. (Costs a lot more than $30, BTW.) I think the advertisement is a good reason for NES Maker to have one by default. Someone who feels that they are a brand worth supporting may want to leave it in. This can also cultivate a sense of community around it. I think a splash screen is a good idea, here.
On the other hand, if you believe NES Maker will only produce crap games that need to be marked and identified, you're clearly not interested in buying or using it, and catering to you isn't going to help their project or community, as far as I can tell. At least, that's how I'd view such a request if it were me.
(So maybe the splash screen issue itself is a red herring, but this thought applies to any similar request.)
So Unity is Free, with a Splash Screen. This means that for the "free" you "advertise" the product.
For a fee you remove the splash, this makes people want to buy your product, so you get more money.
If you think your game is not worth paying the money to remove the splash then it means you know your game sucks. Hence its shovel wear . By paying to remove the splash it shows you think you game is good enough to sell to cover the cost of the engine. Having the Splash seen as bad, is good for Unity because it means no game maker who wants to sell something will actually sell their game on the "Free" version and Unity get more money.