Well if we want to start picking one another's games apart, then let's go.
Sega Rally 2 was hardly rough around the edges like you make out. It had some hiccups, but it was hardly a "troubled port." Popup wasn't uncommon in the arcarde version, so you can’t pin that on a rush job. Frame-rate issues were the only real issue I remember ever having with the game, and that's not exactly a ruining experience. I'm not the only one who thought the game was solid, either. Famitsu gave it a 36/40 (incidentally the same score they handed the Saturn port, and a sight higher than many of the games on your list). IGN gave it a 90.
Out of your broadened list, I don't think anyone would look at Manx TT or Golden Axe the Duel as AAA (in the case of the latter, I don't think it's widely considered even "good"). Virtual Racing was impressive on the MD. On the SS, it was sort of outdated. Sega Touring Cars was forgettable (I literally forgot about it). House of the Dead was a defining game on the Saturn, at least in retrospect - I'd count it. Last Bronx was AAA in Japan, so I'd count it, too, I guess. Very fun game. I wish Sega had doubled down with Last Bronx on the DC, actually.
Virtua Fighter 2 was a better game than tb, but 3 was also 2 years old when it came to the Dreamcast (3 in the west) and that made it seem underwhelming, especially next to Soul Calibur. Its gameplay was much bigger advancement than 2, and it was a much more ambitious game the whole way through. From 1996 to 1998 every Saturn owner prayed for VF3 to come to their system before going to bed, and that's a fact. Wasn't the same Fighter MegaMix you cite the test ground for VF3's allegedly poor fourth button mechanism? Wasn't MegaMix touted as the first true 3D fighter? VF3 gets a bum rep for being different.
The four sports games you listed were alright, but they pale next to the 2K lineup. I know its apples and oranges with Winter Heat and Decathalete.
Astal was pretty, but was very shallow. It wasn't AAA, even in 1995. If not for the hand-drawn graphics, it would be entirely forgettable.
Clockwork Knight and its sequel, while fun games, were filler - the same, I suppose, you would say of Zombie Revenge and Outtrigger (though in my mind, anything AM2 does is AAA). I don't think people were queuing up for it at the stores, and I don't think people were waiting for their copy of Next to read previews of it.
While I risk losing Virtual On OT for this argument, but I'll point out that a couple of your games weren't brought over thanks to Sega, but because of the tireless folks over at Working Design. With the particular case of MKR, that was most definitely no thanks to Sega. By the time MKR made it over, it was fairly dated.
On the topic of bringing some of Sega’s better Saturn games over, wasn’t there a bit of a hiccup there with an e3 booth in 1997? Sega damn near chased WD away with a broom. They sold them a booth (Sold!) and then Bernie tried to rescind the deal to keep up the impression the Saturn was dead. They gated them off and kept WD hidden in some corner booth. Sega lost 5 games because of the way they were handled.
