I think there is a value of varying the pacing of the player's actions for games with heavier narrative purposes. In Gears of War, there's this great guitar twang that signifies you've cleared all the enemies in this scene, which are often followed by a very short regrouping and clarifaction of what the objective is now. In Gears 2/3 you can skip them too by pressing Y, but I think they're pretty ok in short bursts.
ND's Uncharted/The Last of Us is always adjusting the speed of the player and his abilities, that's just something you have to buy into when you grab those games. They're controlling your experience to match the intended beat or emotion for this particular scene. You can't jump around on people's heads like Half-Life 2, you can't always pull out your guns, you can't always run full speed. I think this mostly worked in TLOU because its not an all-out action game anyway. The vast majority of that game is either walking or sneaking, with the rare sprinting/big moments sticking out that much more because of their scarcity. It lets you soak in the environments they spent so much time on or interact with other NPCs in simple ways.
Now that might not make them the most easily replayable things in the world, but I mean they're not really trying to be. They're aint got S ranks for you to shoot for, no score system in the top corner increasing in numbers. They're designed with a certain experience in mind and usually leave the more readily "gamey" elements free from certain narrative restraints to the multiplayer. Which they hope you play over and over.
