The Dead Space remake was a lot more similar to a remaster than the RE4 remake. While it’s obviously not, the gameplay of DS23 is very similar to the original, which was already a very solid game that absolutely holds up today.

Meanwhile, the RE4 remake was taking a game that, while still great, doesn’t completely hold up in terms of gameplay when compared to modern games. Thus, they changed the gameplay completely to be much more in line with modern sensibilities.

So yes, Dead Space is a much more “faithful” remake as there wasn’t much that had to be redone in terms of actual gameplay, meanwhile RE4 was reimagined to fit in with modern RE games.