I watched a video recently and it pointed out how RE7 and RE8 are actually the natural evolution of the franchise. Just as RE4-RE6 were. The story has to evolve or else it'd just stop making sense. The gameplay had to evolve to be more action-oriented in the middle games to fit said evolved story and then revert back to horror in RE7 in order to evolve cyclically in order to survive. And I couldn't agree more.
I do find the "it's a good game, but not a good (franchise name) game" idea quite interesting. BioShock Infinite, Dragon Age Inquisition, Deus Ex 2-4 (odd how the majority of DX games aren't like DX1...yet they're the ones being called "not a DX game"), AC Origins and subsequent AC's, various RE's, even BotW all come to mind. But I think that's all fine. I get some evolved to be more appealing to the masses, but I don't think that's the complete case for RE. And the other thing that makes RE stick out from the rest is that it IS a continuous story of the RE world (although, of course, it's fine to accept each RE game as its own continuity). BioShock, Dragon Age, and Zelda are all their own separate stories in each game, pretty much. AC and DX jump around different parts in time.
But not RE. Sure 7 starts the splintering off of the main RE storyline, but it's really just an evolution. Umbrella has evolved. Chris Redfield has evolved. New characters and major players are fine and natural for a 25+ year old series. Besides, if you want "more of the same", just play the remakes.