archestereo
…maybe it goes back to even before this, but I think alot of it has to do with the legendary Sonic 2 beta. Probably the biggest bombshell was that the Hidden Palace Zone and Master Emerald, which we later see in Sonic and Knuckles, was originally going to appear in Sonic 2. In fact, just about all the levels were replaced: there was going to be a desert zone, a wood zone, and apparently a level named “Genocide City Zone” (although it’s an empty level, which pretty much caused it to receive the most speculation). There were even some badniks that got scrapped like a little t-rex robot. The fascination for the Sonic 2 beta is perhaps rivaled only by that of Sonic Xtreme, and that game got canned altogether. So, I guess the short answer is that gamers get wrapped up in the enigma of the games they can’t have, or something like that.