As a counter-argument, I'd argue that a lot of games, especially indie games today but also bigger productions, are incredibly formulaic because they focus so much on designing the game loop first. You can coax most games into the loop model, but it's like the Hero's Journey of game design: It's a passable tool for understanding the medium, but it's toxic template for producing something that has any sort of soul. Not that it can't be done, but using that as a starting point pushes you toward a certain set of conclusions and limits the ways you think about games.
