I don't really think its fair to say that the "field is in a sad state". Plenty of insightful and well-written papers are put out everyday by hardworking and intelligent people. I still have a long way to go.

I do research because I like solving hard problems that people have never considered. I like to ensure that what I have learned will be put into practical use.

And for example, solving 1-1 Starcraft problems wouldn't be a problem that people have never considered. And can't be put to practical use. So you wouldn't do it? I'm genuinely curious, what makes a difference and motivates to engage into research, rather than playing challenging games.

Well, I used to play a lot of competitive FPS games because I found it fun. I have also done competitive programming problems for fun/accolades. But after doing more practical research, I realized it felt better to do impactful stuff (especially getting recognized). Also, research is nice because I perform terrible at short events (games, contests) under pressure. I think that if I tried something else before research that met the same criteria I probably wouldn't have done research.