OK, maybe I am being slightly unfair towards XV in particular here.

Maybe instead of suggesting XV shouldn't be part of the franchise, maybe a better way to say it is that the further away from what people expect of your series you go, the less of a good idea it is to include it in that series.

So would anyone who liked XV have enjoyed it any less if it were called something else? I would assume not; it would be the same game, after all.
But would people who disliked it have enjoyed it more if they weren't hoping for something similar to the other games in this series that they've been playing for 30 years? Probably. Certainly I would have.