I disagree, while I can agree that The Last Story had poor leading characters and a crappy love plot, I felt the game was far more innovative and engaging than even Xenoblade.

I just feel working with the others would be kind of boring. Takahashi and Matsuno generally keep to themselves when working so it would be less collaboration and more gophering. Even then, Takahashi is becoming more of a producer nowadays so most of the work of games like Xenoblade are being done by the younger staff and he's just overseeing things.