what the?! i get all the points the OP has stated. it doesnt matter if a game spans a whole city or one single haunted mansion, it comes down to execution and what the game lets the player discover on his/her own pace and time frame that can make or break gameplay. you, as a developer, should try and stay out of the players way as much as possible if you believe you have created an immersive and interesting environment and it sounds as if capcom does not do that. as for QTE's, i remember when they popped up in RE4 and i didn't like them then, they arent fun or original but for some reason capcom loves them.

resident evil has so much potential, so many great characters to work with and so much history, not to mention my favorite thing to shoot and run from (zombies of course) and i think thats what bothers me most because it should be easy for them to make an eerie and immersive environment that makes you want to keep the lights on and make you never want to stop exploring each and every last dark hallway, yet they hash out these action packed movie themed "games" that keep us always wondering "what if".. they really need to stop looking at what is most popular or what type of games they see flying off the shelves and reclaim their own identity again because there is risk in being a unique gamestyle, but the rewards would be great if they just made more intellegent decisions.