I don't think the problem is with gameplay. The problem is with unnecessary gameplay. It's sort of like in the 80s how every metal/hard-rock song had to have a guitar solo in it, whether it was appropriate or not.
So true! It took me maybe a decade to intimately accept that a rock song can be great even without a guitar solo

But I went through it and now I am a better person

Maybe in ten years (almost) nobody will feel outraged by games missing combat, win/lose states, achievements etc...