Damn, hope your recovery goes well! I'd say city building sims are a good option. Pretty sure you can go through Anno 1800 or the Civ games without needing to use both hands. Might need to move between the mouse and keyboard at times, but I don't recall them putting so much pressure on you that you can't do that with one hand.

Oh, maybe something like Poker Night at the Inventory, too.

I believe you can play FTL with just the mouse and a space bar for pausing, if that counts.

I've never tried it but they made the L button work in Earthbound for just this purpose

Kirby Air Ride works one handed with the stick to move and L to drift/charge iirc

pretty much any turn based crpg / tactical turn based game works okay with just a mouse. x-com, new x-com, fallout, jagged alliance, wizardry etc

Hope your recovery goes smoothly! I feel like Plants Vs Zombies would be a good one, it's one of my favs

i hope its not too cruel to say getting over it with bennett foddy

Sorry to hear about that. That being said:

Stephen's Sausage Roll
Peggle
Downwell
Many versions of Pac-Man
Lumines with control option C (You can't rotate clockwise, but it's still easily playable)

There are plenty others that may require a rebinding of controls, but I'll hold on those unless you're looking for that.

This list might have some crossover: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Detchibe/list/judgement-of-solomon-gaming-or-games-that-use-half-the-controller-or-one-handed-gaming-but-not-like-nukige/

Visual Novels are fairly obvious ones, maybe something like 428 scramble?

Additionally and SRPG really is pretty doable from where I shattered one of my fingers years ago. How about Dark Deity? It's a Fire Emblem clone on Steam that is semi decent.

The first one that springs to mind is Vampire Survivors. You do use the buttons, but only in menus when the game is paused. All the real-time action takes place exclusively with the left stick.

Best of luck with your surgery and a speedy recovery!!

https://www.backloggd.com/u/letshugbro/list/games-you-can-play-while-eating-a-cheese-pizza/

People here have said some really great one, but one I haven't seen is Super Hexagon, it's completely playable using like 3 keys of the keyboard, and it's so hard that it can last a while... sometimes to its detriment xD. I really hope everything goes well and you recover soon, take care!

Another one of my friends recently also had to get hand surgery, I really wish I knew more beyond stuff already mentioned like turn-based stuff, tower defense, and some slower-paced RTS games. I've been playing Age of Empires II very comfortably with just my mouse. Seconding PvZ.

Hope you get a quick recovery friend, and stay away from cookie clicker.

Vampire survivors, it'd be easier if your left hand is the one that'll be available but I'm sure it'd work just fine with movement rebinded to arrow keys

Civilization IV can be played entirely with the mouse and no other controls and offers a TON of playtime, it's also the best Civ game. I highly recommend it for this list. Similarly, Slay the Spire: Ton of play time, mouse only controls, very good game.

HoloCure, as a Survivor-like, can definitely be played with one hand although you might need to remap the Special button. Incredible addictive, incredibly fun. Wargroove IIRC can be played on one hand as a Tactical RPG, as can Soul Nomad? Most turn based RPG games, really. I'll try and think of more later.

Thanks so much everyone! Both for the recommendations, and for the good vibes you're sending my way. To clarify, pain is mild, function is near full, but conservative treatment isn't doing anything so surgery feels like an inevitability - still, it's not imminent or urgent. Nice to have a bunch of games I can play if/when it happens though!