Having been roleplaying since the first print run of D&D, I've been feeling the same way ever since RPGs started drifting towards more Action than roleplaying. (Hard to say when that was. Sometime well before Mass Effect was ballyhooed as being a RPG.) But it seems pretty obvious that most gamers that see themselves as RPGers are actually more interested in what they are DOing rather than what their characters are BEing. So the demand for instant gratification really isn't surprising.