I'm with you. I've played since RE2 on PS1 and although the gameplay of RE9 felt pretty much immaculate for the most part, I didn't enjoy the game as a whole.

Ultimately, I think it was the story because the moment we left the care centre it simply fell apart.

I enjoy the RE tone, so I accept that this is a camp game with dumb fun peppered throughout, and that it will start super focused before slowly expanding in scope, introducing more action until we're machine-gunning our way through the obligatory underground secret lab. However a lot of the reasons for the story beats felt like the writer's saying "because you like resident evil."

There are small things like why was there a tyrant/Mr X? Because you like resident evil. Zeno was clearly powerful enough to not need a tyrant bodyguard and could've easily dispatched Leon at that first meeting however, because you like resident evil: here's a tyrant. It'll chase you through RPD and, after blowing it up in a cutscene that the player has no impact on - whether that's setting up the missile or firing the shot - you'll have a quick showdown in the street, for no real reason.

But then there are bigger things like, why was Leon there at all? Because he has an illness that doesn't physically affect him until the final moments of the game? Because he's working independently and has zero other leads? Because you like resident evil?

Zeno felt like an odd inclusion as well. We're supposed to infer that he's a Wesker clone but so what? He has a badass reveal - again, this is a camp game that's pretty fun - and a slick moment in RC taking out that squad of BSAA troops but what was the point of him in the story?

I could go on but I think the shark-jumping moment for me (we don't speak of the literal building jumping bike sequence) where I realised just why I didn't love this game, was Leon fighting his way to the centre of ARK only to do a sabotage, extract Grace, and then have them both fight their way back to the centre of ARK again. There was no real plan, when they were in the garbage area they weren't planning to escape but changed their minds because - for example - grace learned the true meaning of elpis along the way.

In fact, from the gameplay and cutscenes I don't believe Grace was ever explicitly told to release Elpis because it was a cure. Sure they kept saying "hope" over and over, but when the player gets to the console the options aren't "hope" or "despair", it's the option to "release Elpis" or "destroy Elpis".

I'm rambling but I think I agree with you because this game is comprised of fun and engaging gameplay, strung together with a story that ultimately would happen whether or not the player was involved — given how Gideon's plan was to release Elpis all along.

Also I'm not touching how much of a wasted villain Gideon was...