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.
I think another thing too is that story faggotry meshed well with how big studios tried to present trailers and footage for upcoming games at things like E3. It's a bit easier to convey than trying to show off satisfying gameplay loops.