It's worth noting, I think, that the definition of shovelware has slipped somewhat since it was coined like thirty years ago, and I think this is leading to you and niisyth talking past each other. Shovel Knight for Switch was maybe shovelware by the original definition, which was "shovel a bunch of old software onto a CD and resell it," but by the Wii era people were using it to refer to software that is just bad, but exists to trick people into buying it by promising to be more full-featured than it actually is. The Wii had so many titles like this that it seemed like they were "shoveling" shit directly onto store shelves and calling it games. In this new definition, it refers to titles like My Horse and Me or Imagine Party Babyz. So if they are thinking of the newer usage, it sounds like you're insulting Shovel Knight's quality as a game.