I bought the journey collection and regret the purchase. Tried the game for 5 minutes and then turned it off. I just don't get the appeal.

maybe if you had played it to the end...

go finish the game and then come back. 5 minutes into it, even 20 minutes into it, doesn't even scratch the surface. It just gives you some 'huh, that's nice' moments which are all the building blocks to the end. The game is paced, which is what I think you don't like. It's paced in that it starts off somewhat slow, builds and builds and builds into an amazing crescendo, and subsequent satisfying denouement.

Looking at your games list, you have a lot of action games that start off guns blazing. Even a game that I think has pretty good pacing, like uncharted 2, cannot match the sheer brilliance of journey.