I think you're misunderstanding him, personally, and taking his position as a slight against mobile. I know there are good games on mobile, but he's correct that the vast, vast majority are junk -- f2p garbage, rush to market clones and ip stealers, whale hunting addiction gaming, etc.
And while mobile might have KOTOR and Baldur's Gate and XCOM [which is awesome] those are niche in comparison to timer based multi-currency click-a-thons. There is a reason game prices raced to the bottom (first 99 cents, then free)... because a majority on mobile want to game for free, no matter how good the experience is.
And sure, some people buy tablets for games. I'm sure minecraft has sold more than a few. But in chasing that argument, you're missing the point he was trying to make -- the vast majority of phone/tablet owners didn't buy for games, games are just an afterthought... but now that they have them, games do exist.
Personally, I find searching for good games on mobile [i have an android tablet, and used to have an ipad] nearly soul crushing. I spend a couple hours researching games, download a bunch, only to discover grindgates and paywalls. And sure, I find some good games too [hoplite! card crawl!] but... it's just different. It's a different marketplace because it's a different market. I actually 'enjoy' gaming on my vita... finding games I enjoy on mobile feels like a job. And when I find a great game that's destroyed by f2p nonsense, I just want to punch a wall. Vita gaming has never stressed me out like that.
I mean, let's just take a simple genre -- match 3 games. There are thousands! Thousands! And some of them that look good are absolutely terrible. There are so many reviews to shift through, so many to download and give a chance... I've probably tried a dozen since christmas and haven't found a decent one yet. [the closest was probably the marvel one, but that's got too much f2p nonsense].
