My most played games:  Rimworld (Indie), Battletech (Indie/Paradox Distrib), Factorio (Indie), Hearts of Iron IV (Paradox), Civ 6 (AAA), XCOM2 (AAA).  I've played the Civs since 1, and XCOM since the original DOS game.  None of my other favorites are AAA (unless you count Paradox as AAA).  No microtransactions but plenty of DLC (pure Paradox products are notorious for DLC, but at least there's no microTs.)   So, agreed, I'm definitely looking more and more at the Indies.