Regardless, if all of those factors are ruled out (or really just one or two of them) then shovelware can effectively "hide" quality games.
Those factors aren't ruled out though.
Hiding quality games from sight (why would anyone...), and reviewing all shovelware games will never happen.
It wouldn't make any sense to do those things. Besides, because they don't happen, it is irrelevant.
Well yeah, it is. However, one must understand that the average consumer doesn't always have the common sense to research before they buy a game. We still live in an age where people cover shop and look for what looks cool, in fact, that makes up almost the entirety of our "Hardcore Gamers". The average consumer usually relies on word-of-mouth and aesthetics when purchasing a game, and that's a problem. A major problem. This is especially a problem in the case of the Wii, where shovelware may "look" better than quality titles without actually being better.
The average consumer absorbs a lot of information in regards to purchasing games, not just word-of-mouth and aesthetics.
That includes game reviews, advertisements (online, physical, television, printed, guerilla, etc), game cover, demos, and much more.
There will always be customers don't research, but that is just life. Some people don't care.
Regardless of shovelware being purchased, the high-quality games aren't suffering. They are nearly always the top sellers, or in the top list.
I just don't see how this is a problem.
There isn't any remedy to poor-quality goods, and they aren't harming anybody, aside from our good times.
They do, however, teach us a valuable lesson when we purchase them.
"RESEARCH NEXT TIME!"
I don't think very many realities exist where that isn't the case. The point is that people like money, and stores don't really care what they put out as long as it doesn't detriment them.
I'm glad, neither do I.
But you stated earlier "...thus leaving one's research and judgement to finding the good games, and that's not how it should be". The only situation that can exist where it would be acceptable for research and judgement to be absent from purchasing goods, would be if there were no deceptive and poor quality goods in the first place.
But, companies will always create and stores will always stock poor quality goods that are deceptive.
Anyway, stores do care what they put out. If well-received games were not stocked, it'd damage the public perception of the company.
If customers repeatedly kept feeling ripped off from a store, they'll stop buying from them.
Sorry for the gargantuan post!