Yet you insist the only people who like RE4 (or 75% of them) didn't play the earlier versions.
I can't really comment on what RE4 is like. It seems universally accepted that it was a "departure" in the series (since you don't like the term reinvention, though I believe Capcom calls it as such).
With any departure, people will like it, and others won't.
You're the only person I've come across who doesn't however. Thusly, it would seem to me that you are in the minority.