Ahhhh, NOW I get it. I'm, actually around the same age as you. Thing is, tho, I grew up playing non-action RPGs ie real, turn based RPGs. Some of the first RPGs I ever played were Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Warrior 1, Bard's Tale 3, Ultima 4, Gold Box series, Might and Magic 1… some on console some on PC, so a menu driven combat system indicates a real RPG. Sure, action RPGs like Diablo and Morrowind don't do menus, but they're also not true blue RPGs and were made to appeal to the non-niche mainstream players(not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm guessing, being my age, you played mostly action games? I played my share, but Turn Based Strategy(X-Com, Civ, Master of Magic) and CRPGs were what really made my imagination soar. And a big part of that was the combat being slow, chess-like and representative of amazing battles that dwarfed anything in action games.
And none of that is to say that you are wrong, you're probably right, that having old timey, turn based combat will hurt a game's sales and probably increase the time investment. Still love them, and the people that were the base upon which the RPG genre survived long enough for Diablo and Morrowind to even exist love(d) it too. You might never grow to like it, but if you've never played a turn based RPG, you might discover something you might actually like.