The extraordinary measures to not feel like another generic UE game involve replacing core components not designed to be replaced.
The reason people don’t want to see UE just be “the engine” for every big budget game is because you get way more variety when big companies make their own from the ground up to meet their own needs. A game like Elden Ring feels different because they have different design principles, sure, but it also feels different because they built their own engine from the ground up that fits its gameplay. It would be a worse game in UE. The things it abstracts away sound great, but it means everyone does the same things the same way.
People react negatively to it because it’s really easy to tell.