Yeah, but it's a boss gauntlet from an indie developer… the whole point is the boss fights—this is where all the resources went. Everything you demanded above requires more development hours (more money) or better creative choices. For an indie game, pumping money in any place other than your core gameplay experience is not an option most of the time, and poor creative choices aren't always made out of laziness.

You talk like you know they had the resources but decided to "half-ass" it, which's an odd assumption to make about a trivial part of the game. I agree these parts should've been skippable from the get-go, and I understand how frustrating walk-and-talk segments can be in action games and I agree they don't belong there at all, but none of this justifies the cynicism.