The title of this thread is misleading.
What you seem to be asking is "Why are sega games generally ignored at release?" or "Why do they not win awards?"
It is obvious that Sega's game history has been massively influential to other games throughout gaming history. You'd have to be pretty cut off from Sega's work to not see how it has influenced gaming.
To address what you actually are asking, I would say that your opinion is limited to the NA viewpoint, where either you have the old guard that has to put Sega down since they were the enemy to their first love (Nintendo), or you have the new school which never knew Sega in its heyday. In JP and EUR, Sega is constantly recognized.
This is very good to hear. For Japan I guess it's out of basic honor and respect, and Europe for that and b/c I remember Master System and MegaDrive selling very well there.
Oh, and hello everyone. I'm new here, but hope to be among fellows
I wanted to find a Sega-dedicated forum on the net and I've enjoyed lurking around every now and again x3. So being it's a new year I figure it was a good time to actually register.
This thread drew my attention in particular b/c (and well just a brief bit about myself) I actually post on NeoGAF under the username 'jhmjtehgamer20xx', and someone made a thread there a few days ago about a new generation of gamers not being able to experience enjoying a new Sega console. And there were some good posts in there absolutely, but there were also some REALLY IGNORANT and offensive posts as well that imho exemplified the worst type of revisionists history and belittling I've ever witnessed befall an iconic game developer in, well, ever. Not here to trash GAF in itself, but that thread did make me realize that it isn't nearly as pro-Sega as I thought it was. It's kind of sad in a way, b/c it could be more pro-Sega while still being the pro-Nintendo it most obviously is, but for some reason that's not the way.
I've tried my best to try and educate posters there on the error of their thinking, and hopefully reached through to some of them, but it's brutal to go through that kind of stuff. I think there is a way we can discuss Sega's past (including the bad and how that hurt them) while still being 100% respectful and appreciating the massive amount of good they bought to the industry, and without having to bad-mouth other companies while doing so.
So uh, yeah, hello xD. Sorry if this was kind of a jumbled mess of a post, but yeah I'm pretty passionate for the company that got me started in gaming.