I can't help but liken this sort of attitude to a statement like "why bother crafting beautiful game environments, the player could just stare at their own feet

I can't help but liken this sort of attitude to a statement like "why bother crafting beautiful game environments, the player could just stare at their own feet" Sure, you no longer have control of where the viewer is looking, but you do have control over the entire environment in which they now exist in. Changing scenes and guiding the viewers attention are obviously new challenges, but they are hardly insurmountable, and implying that they are enough to destroy the value of the medium is just lazy.