Gonna repeat my position on this a bit, but I can see why someone would rank Village over Requiem. I'm one of them.
Village has issues of being an uneven and unfocused game, but in terms of environments, enemy variety, exploration, gun system, and boss battles, it outclasses Requiem. I would says Rhodes Hill rivals and even surpasses the Castle and the village, but all the other environments in Requiem are way worse than the ones in Village. The exploration in Village is really good too, being able to revisit previous areas and explore more of it after acquiring certain items, and you get rewarded with things like treasure, animals to hunt, gear ,etc. The exploration in Requiem doesn't feel nearly as rewarding. Village also has a whole variety of enemies to encounter, whereas Requiem is 95% Zombies. As for the weapons, the "stronger" guns you can acquire as Leon, don't feel that much different from your starter guns. The Rifle maybe, but everything else just feels like guns with better stats. With Village, most of the guns feel pretty different from each other.
I think when you deconstruct both games, Village just has more to offer. I think it's a good game, it's not one of my favorites, but playing Requiem has made me appreciate the things Village did right.