The mechanically identical predecessor games didn't have any anti user elements either. The concept predates that too. If my family had enough money and modern day iffy parenting to give their barely highschool aged kid an iphone I probably could have made quite a chunk of money porting simple games I didn't even come up with to the platform. I hated the ios interface back then too though from trying it when friends were showing off the new toy.

A large part of what made it crap to me both then and now is whatever causes my dislike of GTA even though I enjoyed 100%ing them up to san Andreas, of CoD even though MW2(original) had a special place in my blackened heart for being my first all achievements game, or any sports game other than SNES NHL 98.

I agree with the what you called the details of the game making or breaking it however. The Spider-Man formula just does it for me. Some I just vaguely recall as being fun like older Spider-Man titles, the hulk, prototype, watchdogs, etc., but I still absolutely love gravity rush/daze 1 and 2 as well as the recent Spider-Man games ported from PS. I spent a good chunk of time curled up in a ball, rolling around on the floor while playing gravity rush 1 on ps vita to up the immersion.