To tell a story history is not binding. It neither a lack of skill or imagination - it’s an intended. What you have shown is a lack of understanding of the art of telling a story.

If combat interaction is secondary to kills per second in your design specc, no numbers game can fix it. PoE designers and players seem to fear "slowness’.

I guess post-X fp-rpgs in an open-ish world-setting is a new subgenre now…