Lets tackle something here. Games do not have to be fun. Fun is the requirement of a toy. Fun is not the requirement of a book nor film and especially not modern interactive media that has broken out of its 90s baby years. Building highly engaging set pieces that evoke other emotions than fun is entirely viable and there is nothing really wrong with it. This War of Mine is a recent example of a game that is an utter chore to play and can be entirely depressing, but is a masterfully good game.
One developer spent an entire year in Assassin’s Creed: Unity rebuilding the Notre Dame. It was beautiful, awe inspiring, and something that many people would fail to appreciate. But why does that artistic vision and the truly inspirational level of work & dedication need to be cut (let alone downplayed or degraded)? The core problems with the game were not that teams of artists worked on producing beautiful artistic set pieces. The problems resulted from design decisions regarding more simple things like the amount of characters present because they wanted to push hardware boundaries and failed to do so.
You are right that large projects need a great amount of direction. This is true of any of large multinational corporation. But fun is not something that a game has to be nor should it always consider that as opposed to the numerous of other emotions which could be evoked & experiences which can be created.