When I think about why I'm drawn to certain cRPGs such as the Ultima series and Gothic/Risen/Elex series there is so much more going on in my mind that could ever be reflected in just a scoring system. It's sort of like in the movie Titanic where in the beginning the analyst gives this sort of forensic rundown of the Titanic to the old woman who quickly points out the soullessness of such analysis and as such marks the beginning point of her story.
For me, this goes back to the late 70s & 80s with the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, TRS-80, and an IBM PC. Each of those systems brought incremental improvements in graphics and game complexity.
After discovering and playing Ultima 2, I was forever drawn to cRPGs. Along the way were a number of other series like Bard's Tale and Wizardry and some other "one hit wonders" that came and went.
All of those games suffered from poor graphics relative to other genres offering more "actiony" gameplay. At the time though, games were so far and few between, not to mention quite expensive, that I think most gamers, including myself, oriented themselves on whatever was great about it while filling in with our imagination whatever was weak. Meaty game manuals were a part of fleshing out a game above and beyond the technology's capability to technically facilitate ideas by filling our imaginations with those ideas.
Fast forward to today with games that can simulate individual hairs on your character's beard, it is quite a different time... technically. However, "actiony" games are still "actiony" and don't grip me for long because the eye candy, at least for me, wears off fast.
I'm still drawn to game worlds filled with complex gameplay, systems, simulation, exploration, and story. However, even now, although cRPG visuals are vastly superior to their ancestors of the 70s/80s/90s, they still tend to take a back seat to their action game counterparts.
I think this sort of experience over the decades, the idea that expecting the best graphics, animation, and overall visual presentation isn't as important as the actual gameplay that has that sometimes undefinable "fun factor." So with a game like Elex and the justified comments that it is a "janky" game isn't something I'd argue, but I find that PB makes their gameplay very interesting in a number of ways... and the gameplay is what keeps me hooked long after the eye candy wears off... which is usually, quite literally, after just a few minutes, at least for me.