It's not an analogy. AAA is a grade when you buy meat and it's a quality standard.
AAA has meanings prety much everywhere except in gaming when it's just about budget and « production values », aka nothing to do with quality. It's garbage and means nothing to the end consumer quality wise.
There is no guarantee of quality irrespective of budget or studio, but the differentiator is definitely important to me as a consumer.
Whilst I play lots of high budget and lower budget titles, If I want a game with much broader scope, systems, production vales etc, simply put, most times out of ten it's going to be only AAA games that can provide that sort of experience. Eg, you're never going to get a low budget indie game with the massive, bustling, rich open worlds of stuff like Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, Spider-Man etc. And you're never going to get a narrative based linear low budget indie titles with the huge blockbuster set pieces, action, animation or cinematic quality of stuff like Uncharted.
So yes, whilst there's no guarantee of quality, those kinds of things do offer a different type of experience, level of immersion or interactivity, which is something of value to me as a consumer.
