Hmm... as another older (let's say "mature") RPG player myself, this doesn't make sense to me. As long as you assume the role of a character in the game and have input in guiding that character's development, it's an RPG in the pure sense. Whether it's a deep - or in one's opinion "good" - RPG is another matter, of course. Defining an RPG solely on the existence of a more-than-paper-thin story or on enemy kill counts would automatically disqualify all the old Wizardry and M&M games as RPGs, for example.
Still, I understand some people seem to have developed different ideas on this over recent years; it is what it is. (Props for the Asteroids nostalgia, though!)
