I'm not saying story is a bad thing. It's not, but it seems like a lot of devs focus so heavily on coming up with an engaging story and good visuals that they forget to actually make the game fun to play.
I think about some of the games I've played over the years, and a lot of my favorites either had fairly limited or even downright absurd plots that basically boil down to an excuse to make the gameplay loop happen.
Just a random musing.
Only if you require it to be new/unique. There's plenty of gameplay loops that are proven successes, and most of these are nowhere near market saturation. But studios/publishers aren't interested in established gameplay loops (unless they're the ones that established it) they're trying to figure out how to maximize the amount of money they can milk out of their customers.
Yeah, playing Halls of Torment right now... And it's Vampire Survivors. Straight-up. Still sold a million copies, and still is a great game.
I played a half-dozen Slay The Spire clones, called that because they just ape the deckbuilder system of STS. Because that system, too, works. Maybe a dozen "Metroidvania" titles, too, named so because they copy the gameplay loop of Metroid, and Castlevania.
I've probably played two dozen "souls-like" games, 3rd-person hack-and-slashers with dodge-rolling-and-stamina elements. Because that one also works.
And don't get me started on turn based party based "Attack, Magic, Item, Flee" menu combat systems and gameplay loops! I've probably a thousand JRPGs in my library.
It's easy to get a good gameplay loop. Just take a successful game's loop. Everyone does it. No one gets sued over it.