Well in my opinion we are a long ways off of what I would consider a next gen game if the ideals is based on technological improvements. Most of the stuff you see now and think that’s new has been around for a while or even years and more or less someone getting around to taking advantage of an old feature never used.
How important is Uvmapping?
All things games development wise is based on context. With out context than all things are equally important with out bias but if an object “needs” the support of texture then it becomes very important if the object in question is a center piece of your design.
Even then.
As physics based and procedural materials become more popular and common the there will be no need for uvmapping at all, except for lightmapping and I even see that going the way of old ideals, and texture work will someday depend on how many crayons you have in the box.
For now though how something needs to be mapped should be left up to the texture artist and responsible for setting up the mapping the way they want and should be a skill they know how to do on their own.