I disagree on a few things but don't read this as me wanting to start an argument, lol.
Mostly just curious on why you think it's not much of an RE game. I'll give my point of view first; as someone who still actively plays the PSX RE games and CVX on the PS2, RE7 & 8 feel very much like RE titles to me, at least in terms of gameplay. Puzzles, exploration, inventory management, etc. In Village the inventory management is kind of turned on it's head and rather than running out of space for storage, the management factor to me was in crafting supplies. Do you make such and such ammo, or do you hold off and wait? Do you make a healing item or use the materials for sniper ammo, etc?
In terms of story, RE has been completely absurd for 2 decades now so I don't get worked up over ret cons and stuff like that. For me it's purely about gameplay and to me, Village nailed what made Classic RE so memorable as well as included some of the best elements of RE4.
To each their own though, no worries on our views not aligning.
Although the series has varied wildly I would say that this title is much more in line with modern western games.
It doesn't help that with 4 mechanics were introduced that almost every game copies now.
What makes it less of a RE game, is mainly the lack of a puzzle element.
In the past the mansions in the games were puzzle boxes in themselves and you would often leave them having not explored every inch. That's impossible here as you are basically funneled through the experience.
It's the same with the gunplay, there's less of a puzzle element there too.
You don't ever really run out of ammo, the inventory box is huge so there's little item management and there's almost no "how do I handle this situation" involving which weapons to use.
The game has basically had any rough edges rounded off in favour of 'the experience' which is mostly running from one room to the next looking at all the great art direction.
RE4 did that too but in that game each area was substantially different, had more variety, and each area was often a small puzzle in it's self. Here the map is just basically populated with enemies and you shoot them as you go through -- Much more of an FPS mentality. Mopping up enemies to get cash with very little strategy.
That's not to say that RE can't do that, but I'd rather see a game that didn't lean so heavily on gameplay that has been done to death in other titles.
This is probably an exceptional VR title, but it seems pretty compromised for regular play.