For me it depends on the type of story. If you want something character driven, then I feel you want something more narrative driven. If you want more speculation and lore based, you want to go with something with more branching stories. Yes it's possible to have both, but it's difficult to put that level of commitment to a game without sacrificing something somewhere else.

I think about a game like Bloodborne, which I love the story, but it just wouldn't have worked as a narrative piece with a talking protagonist. The vibe of the game and the Lovecraftian horror would have been lost. Likewise, I don't feel FF titles like IV and IX would have worked as well if the game sort of gave the player too much power to control the narrative and change the plot. The games would have lost a lot of their narrative punch.

It's for this reason I've been disappointed with Persona relegating final tier Persona for the final party to social links only, whereas P3 kept them in as a main part of the plot and honestly had a more impactful story for it. I mean watching Yosuke and Ryuji get their final Personas from getting better in their social links, which never impacts the story, pales in comparison to watching Junpei get his in P3 in a moment of despair.