Very, very true. The X series has to appeal to our inner pyromaniacs.
Why mix gameplay and story?
For one thing, Zero's survivability has a direct impact on gameplay at an earlier point. It's one hell of a letdown to either suck or have rotton luck, crawl through the Awakened Zero battle, then go back and do it right, only for Zero to die at the end anyway. Besides, X6's story impacts its satisfaction as well; how awesome is it to kick the series baddie while he's down? I loved that part. It breaks the stereotype of "fantasy good guy always plays defense".
Also, I was deliberately trying to be brief. If you want a gameplay justification for X5's lack of satisfaction, that's easy: You start with an armor that is offensively far more powerful than either of the two sets that you have to collect. Hell, it's literally the end-of-game secret minus Giga Attack (they could have at LEAST used the Stock Charge...), and the only armor outside of said secret that can charge special weapons. The whole lack of proper access to power-ups applies, too. X5 downplays the usual series theme of growing stronger, more through blunders in the way of balance and availability than through any deliberate action that I can see. It is perhaps the single weakest entry in the series in that regard. Ditto for the non-linear nature of stage selection. Both of these are key elements to Mega Man's appeal, especially in the X series, and they are both severely weakened in X5.
I love how X and Zero both have boss explosions when you beat them, and despite that are both fine afterwards. (well, yknow, aside from battle damage)
They have nothing on Dynamo.
Also on DeviantArt, Rumble, DLive.tv, and the Fediverse (@freespeechextremist.com and @bae.st)