I mean, I kinda agree, but I think that your opinion is based on the wrong assumption - that there is such thing as difference between gameplay and narrative in the first place. I'd like to disagree, I think that - ideally - they're the same thing. Let me explain why.
This one may get a little lengthy - don't worry, I'll provide a tl;dr at the end.
I think that this distinction - between gameplay and narrative aspects of the game - is unavoidable when analyzing the game; you have to be able to focus on particular issues of the product that you're thinking about. Especially if said product - a video game - is made by dozens or even hundreds of people, each with their own field of interest, while you're trying to focus on particular issues. That said, this distinction is unnecessary and, in fact, harmful, when you are making a game. And the same goes for all the other aspects of the game - visuals, audio design, UI, freaking font, everything. All of these things should be a reflection of the main theme - the idea, the core - of the whole experience. To reach a point in which making a distinction between these things wouldn't even be possible.
What I mean by that is that there is no such thing as "pure gameplay" or "pure story". What that would even mean? What would be "the story in itself"? The story is not presented through some tools, the story *is* the tools, just like everything else. It's a very holistic approach. But, and this is important, the narration, the story - they don't mean "a lot of text, a bunch of letters". The narrative can be visuals only or sound only, depends of the medium. The medium dictates what kind of tools are at your disposal - and therefore, what kind of story will you be able to present. You can't watch Kubrick movies on muted TV, the whole experience would be gone. And you can't have a good story in a video game with bad gameplay (or even worse, without it) - but not because these things should work together, but because they shouldn't be a situation in which these things are not one and the same. The narrative is the gameplay. Everything exist to express the main idea beneath all of it. But "idea" (from a lack of better word) doesn't have to be some big, profound revelation, it can be a mindless escapism. Depends on the intentions of the creators.
I'll give you two examples of two games that succeed in expressing their own idea perfectly. Should be enough.
1) Planescape: Torment - critics darling, and often misunderstood (but not here though). The worst praise I've ever heard for this game was that "it's the best book you'll ever play!" - it's horrible, because the story of the game, if you would just take the words, type them on paper and put them in a book - would be horrible. The gameplay in P: T is - for the most part - absolutely excellent. By gameplay I mean - statistics, C&C, dialogues and all the things I don't have a words for. All the interactivity. And then there is a combat which sucks, because nothing is perfect. Trying to analyze the "narration" of P: T without this mechanics would be impossible - not even flawed, just straight up impossible. The story can not be understood if you aren't the one that is making all the choices. You have to be responsible as a player, feeling the weight of all choices that your character made, be aware of all your shortcomings. You can't tell player to feel that, you have to make him. Art should be deceptive, it should affect people without their awareness.
2) DOOM (2016) - This is a game that doesn't mess around. It knows exactly what its fanbase want and provides just that. A rush of adrenaline, an uncomplicated violence. Its story is perfect because it knows it place. It doesn't waste your time, it doesn't drag you down with hundreds of hours of cutscenes, it's plain and simple - because the worst possible sin that DOOM could commit would be to slow the player down. Everything is trying to keep you moving - music, animations, gameplay, everything (note that you can - and have to - make a distinction between these aspects when you're analyzing something - you can't when you're creating something, that's my whole point).
It's impossible to really express the “ideas” of these products through words. That what these games are for, that's why they exist.
Knowing all that, we finally reached BioWare and their problem. And BioWare problem is not that they're creating the story and the mechanics in a complete separation, but that they're thinking there is a difference (other than in abstract analysis). Every medium has its strengths and BioWare is incapable of using the ones they chose. They create the story, the characters, the worlds - but only after these things they think about mechanics. And that's why they're doomed to fail over and over again, because they chose the wrong medium. The idea of that separation would be unthinkable if they chose the correct one. But they want to make movies, books, maybe visual novels - but not video games. Because of that, they are unable to use the tools of any medium whatsoever - they can't have the same control over the flow of the events as they would have in a movie, but they also doesn't provide player with the required amount of reactivity. So maybe they should just make a movie. Or even create a new medium, instead of the one that they chose (this is strictly from a quality point of view; money-wise, pretending to give the player choices and then withdrawn from that promise, while also praising player that he has somehow made the correct ones, is perfect; people like to choose, but they don't like their content being hidden from them because of the "consequences").
Ultimately, BioWare problem is not a conflict between narrative and a gameplay, it's that concept itself. The platform they chose to create something for is incapable of expressing the idea that they have. Since the tools are the story, but they don't want to use the tools they chose, there is not story, there is no idea, there is no "immershun". Yet they’re trying anyway, pushing whatever they can and it ends up being incomplete and lacking. Why? Well, it’s that pesky gameplay of course! If only we could get rid of that!
BioWare need to understand that they can't make a "story", but they can make a game that would express the same sentiment that they’re were trying to contain in that “story”.
tl;dr - read the whole thing, you lazy bum.
