Also there isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before either in Balatro, it’s just a nice combination of deck builder tricks applied to poker. And the presentation is also well done which has nothing to do with the mechanics.

I respectfully but totally disagree.

Balatro took the basic game mechanics of a very familiar game and said “what if they were dynamic”. The world’s a big place and I’m willing to believe it’s been done before… but I can’t think of one.

It’s the combination of familiar scoring mechanics with fun meta game modifiers that made Balatro so successful. What happens to poker if two of a kind is suddenly the most important hand? Or if not playing face cards leads to incrementally better scores every hand?

Again, I can’t claim it’s never been done, but saying it’s just another deck builder is missing the point.

You just re-explained deck builders. Scoring modifiers can be part of their mechanics.

Real time chess is a similar example of making a known game more dynamic and completely changing which positions are seen as strong or weak.

Good analogy. Balatro goes a lot further by making the rules dynamic during the game, but at least categorically similar.