That’s fair. In my perspective, the “go here, do this, shoot that” is a symptom of needing to fill out the gameplay loop without investing heavily into world building or genuine reason, because that’s all being spent on the main story beats. But in some games, that’s all there is to do.

Perhaps you are looking for a game where either:

• the game is very focused on a single narrative, and never lets you waste your time
• the game has very little structure and asks you to create your own fun out of a big world

Sounds like you need games that focus more on the gameplay loop and less on the presentation/story. Like someone else said, indies are kings in this regard.

Unfortunately I’d have a hard time recommending anything because they can be so wildly different in style.

Big brother, but the kind that just wants to take good care of their relationships with their younger siblings instead of doing surveillance