You're right in that other forms of media doesn't usually have a need for inflated scores like games can. However, with a 7 being 'average' in gaming reviews ( for better or worse), it sticks out if they're one of the few scoring that way and could lead the casual reader to think something is extremely eh (a 5 with them), when they might actually consider it decent.
You're treating the 7-10 scale as if it's some natural and unchangeable fact about the world. It exists because outlets choose to use their scale as such. If other outlets don't do it, that's not them being contrarian in order to stand out, it's showing a consistency that other outlets lack (since most places on the 7-10 scale will never outright talk about how their reviews might as well be ranked 1-4 because they don't use over half the scale).
If I run an outlet about games with an audiophile focus, and I scored Borderlands 3 a 4/10 because the gameplay's so-so and the writing's bad, but, man, you gotta hear how fucking atrocious this game sounds, that's not being negative for attention, that's an outlet that has a focus and understands their audience.
This sounds dangerously close to "objective game reviews" territory, where you're treating the 7-10 scale as an immutable fact of the universe and anyone who deviates is obviously only doing so for clicks, because why else would you deviate from The One True Standard?
