Old games had to use limited sound chips, so the only way to make a piece stand out was to make the melody very distinct. Nowadays, you can use live bands and orchestras, not to mention any advancements in electronic music, to basically create anything you want. So you don't have to rely on melody so much anymore.

Honestly, no one approach is better or worse. It has nothing to do with passion, IMO. You remember pieces with distinct melodies more, but that doesn't mean pieces with less of a distinct melody are inherently made with less passion or something - they just serve a different function.

So, like Pheesh said, it's all subjective. As yet another musician in this thread, over my years in music school I learned that music is much more than just a catchy melody and it's not always that which makes a piece worthwhile. Sure, it makes them more memorable, but memorability is not always the most important thing in the world.

And even individual composers change to accommodate the new techniques they have available. Compare Nobuo Uematsu's work on Final Fantasy I to The Last Story. Sure, TLS has some pieces where the melody is front and center, but there are a lot of tracks that focus much more on building mood instead of being a memorable piece. There's a place for everything, as I like to say.