Is gaming better as a kid or an adult?

I dont think its at all productive for us to compare responsibilities and measure. I invite you to consider that the level of responsibility in one's life varies a great deal from one person to the next, even within the same demographic group.

In your own post you stated that you never had a time where you couldn't game without prioritizing it, and in my post I stated nearly the opposite. Either one of us is lying, we have a very different baseline level of "priority" for gaming, or we lead different lives in which mine is busier than yours.

People often are dismissive of people's responsibilities they have no way of knowing and offer the empty platitude, "You have to make time for what's important to you," but it is just that, a platitude. Everyone experiences a finite amount of time, and it absolutely can all get used up on critical things before leisure things can be considered. I know I personally have many important things I'd very much love to stop leaving idle, but there are, quite literally, not enough hours in the day. As I've aged I've gone from needing 4 hours of sleep to at least 6, for example. That's 2 hours per day that are simply deleted from my calendar. Once you get to 24 hours, there's no more hours.

That whole line of thinking seems to me to be in the same family of thought as blaming poor people for not working more or harder-- it ignores a mountain of circumstances that make that impossible or irrelevant.

Yeah, and you said..

If we prioritized gaming, we would not have any money for the games and hardware or the place to hook it up and use it.

Plenty of people find space in their schedules for gaming. And based on your more recent comment, you probably do have other hobbies or optional activities that you find more fulfilling than gaming...which is great!

Some people game with their families. Some people find time for gaming instead of consuming other media like TV, movies, books, or social media.

If you prioritize other hobbies beyond gaming, that's great if it makes you happy.

Agreed, but I already watch maybe 1 hour of TV per week, and wouldn't even have one if I didn't have kids. Trust me, I've already looked for low-hanging fruit; I do not love being this busy.

I wish it were true. For me and I'm sure others, leisure activity must be planned, scheduled in advance, and coordinated with several people. Even then, it is not uncommon for it to be interrupted.

I find it strange how many people find it unbelievable that there are people much busier than themselves that do not have time for impromptu leisure activity. I feel like I'm being punked.

I've done full-time work and part-time college and still had time for leisure activities. My work weeks were about 60 hours, before getting into errands and such.

I'm not a parent myself, but my friends who are parents have hobbies and we have social interactions and meetups. Sometimes with their kids present, sometimes without.

I can't speak to your situation. Maybe you are incredibly busy. Either way everyone on Earth gets the same 24 hours per day. And while I was lucky enough to be born in North America, I wasn't born into any sort of extravagance.

Plenty of people have to plan and schedule leisure activity, including gaming. And there are plenty of options if you only have time for quick bursts here or there. Puzzle games and turn-based games are great for that.