Though you're not going to convince me that Game Maker or RPG Maker competes with what can be accomplished with DirectX11 or Unreal, for example... When you walk in a store, say Walmart of Gamestop, just pick up any random game off the shelf and look on the back of the box: "Requires DirectX10" or "Requires OpenGL" or something similar will be there. There's really just no substitute for the power of programming. That is, after all, why all of the professionals and big companies in the industry hire programmers. And it was in fact a programmer who wrote Game Maker and RPG Maker in the first place.
I just checked To the Moon's system requirments on GoG: "3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)". Of course that is no surprise. Making a game with a "programming language" or a different authoring tool like Game Maker has no impact on what the system requirements will be.
While you're absolutely right and have proven your point that you can in theory (and sometimes in practice, as your examples show) create a good game with some "game-maker" software, the chances are slim to none. And if the OP is interested in developing a game I think he/she is starting off on the wrong foot by looking for ways to avoid programming or learning anything about software and development processes.
Learning to program is hard and it is not for everyone. I have friends you would not be able to teach more than reciting "Hello World" from memory. That does not mean they are stupid, they are just different. In exchange they can do things I cannot do or have absolutely no motivation to learn.
With no knowledge of what kind of game the OP wants to create there is no way to say if Game Maker is sufficient for their purposes or not. It might, it might not. He might have to learn programming. Or he can make his game while trying to learn a programming language instead would have made that dream wither and die within two frustrating months.
Also, I looked at the three games you mentioned: LoF, TtM and Saira... While I don't doubt these are pretty good games they're far from being AAA-grade titles. I hadn't even heard of these games until just now. There was definitely no line 200m+ long outside Gamestop at 12am when these games were released. I'm not knocking on the games, I'm just saying they are very technically limited. Most gamers these days would consider the graphics to be below sub-standard and wouldn't buy these games for that reason alone (I know, graphics aren't everything but that's the mentality of gamers). That's the problem with "game-maker" software. The technical reality is that you simply don't have the freedom or raw "power" that simply using a programming language would give you. I would also venture to say I could implement those same games a lot easier and faster by programming them than struggling with click-together game-maker software.
No one person is going to make an AAA game. No two people are going to make an AAA game. No group of dedicated people is going to make an AAA game, no matter their skill, unless they (1) have a lot of money lying around, (2) find a way to get funding from a publisher or (3) manage to run a successful Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign. None of these possibilities is likely. For a mobile game (as envisioned by the OP) none of these things apply anyway. You do not invest something north of a million dollars into a small game that will probably have to be sold for as little as a dollar to be competitive at all.
That aside, I have less and less fun with the big AAA titles for years now and several small Indie titles you so easily dismiss have had a significantly higher fun return for me.
