RDR2 labor of love?! Didn't Rockstar basically abandon the multiplayer a while back throwing the community into a clown protest. Even the single player mode has an audio bug introduced in the final update (many years ago) that affected many people (including myself) and the only fix was running a script some guy on a forum made. The game is completely abandoned by Rockstar and can get the fuck off that list.
Also, I'm one of the people who actually really enjoyed Starfield but to call it the most innovative I would not. Viewfinder, Cocoon, Jusant, Dave the Diver, Humanity, Venba, Hi-Fi Rush to name a few that feel much more at home in this category.
The whole point of that category is games that weren't released this year...
This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.
Other Finalists: Rust, Apex Legends, Dota 2, Deep Rock Galactic
LMAO which is even more hilarious. Has ANY new single-player content been added since launch? I've played through the game at least a half-dozen times over the years and don't recall anything new.
But even under these guidelines it fails. This game hasn't been touched since launch. Even the online spin off hasn't been touched in years and everyone complains about the bugs and the cheaters that are running rampant because Rockstar abandoned this.