I too can forgive simple bugs or quirks. That's why I love Temple of Elemental Evil.
And you aren't getting the difference between dialog and story. A game can have an excellent story and still have atrocious writing, look at the game Pathologic. Planescape on the other hand, has an excellent story and writing, but terrible gameplay.
The point I was trying to make is that the first few Ultimas defined the RPG genre.
People don't remember IV's story unless they've played it. Everyone to this day experiences the effects of IV's gameplay, namely the virtue system and the fact that today so many RPGs have a karma system.
Here's the thing, a great game can have a terrible story and be forgiven. A terrible game cannot have a great story and be forgiven.
It's not how gaming works, it's like being handed a book and being told it's the best book ever, only to open it up and see that it's in a foreign language. It defeats the purpose, good gameplay is supposed to drive forward the story, the story doesn't govern the gameplay, but that's what so many people assume.
When it comes down to the barebone facts, You wouldn't be having fun AT ALL if the gameplay weren't good, lame stories may bore you, but there are legions more people who will rather want to play Icewind Dale over again than sit through the majority of Metal Gear Solid's cutscenes.
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