No, dont make stuff up.

Kojima has always wanted a celebrity actor for the VA of Snake, but was never given the budget for it because of how expensive western actors are.  Originally he wanted Kurt Russell to voice Snake. During MGS3 he tried again with another actor but it didnt happen. He finally got what he wanted in MGSV. Haytor talked about having to recast as Snake in MGS1,3,4, and PW because Kojima was always trying to replace him. During development og MGS5 Kojima specifically said he was a fan Sutherlands work but also choose him because of his ability to convey emotion without words. 

It was Kojima's choice.

It all depends on the game and the vision. It's going to be a case by case scenario like it always has been, only now more options are open for developers to choose from.

Unfortunately it seems like it really was Kojima's decision: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-28-solid-snake-voice-actor-david-hayter-throws-shade-on-hideo-kojima

They are here to stay, maybe become less frequant but as long as studios like CD Projekt stay around.

Kinda surprised that he of all people would say this, but I agree with him.

I realize more and more time is more valuable than money. For me to invest 15+ hours into one game means that the game must be tremendously rewarding and consistently well crafted through out.

I'm not investing that much time into a game where it's like "oh wow! the world is sooooo huge, lets explore! But the story gets shitty half way through".

Nuh uh. If the story is getting shitty half-way through, then I turning that game off and it's going to shelf and probably never played again.

I'm not 10 years old anymore where I'd get one game every birthday and that was precious and I would play through every nook and crany even if the design was flawed in some ways.

Too much to watch, read, play these days. It ain't the 90s anymore, I have like 10 different TV *series* that friends are bugging me to go watch in my backlog. I have 10 books I should be reading in my backlog on my tablet. I have 20+ games I probably should get around to playing. I have 10 movies that I missed in theaters that I probably would still like to watch. 

In north america longer shows have gained popularity such as Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.  You don't see too many 22 minute long shows anymore.

From what I've seen particularly with RPGs is that they're getting much longer than they were before. So I have to disagree with him on that games are getting shorter or that's their future. I certainly don't want games to go that way.

Massive and long have always been hard to find. Nothing new, Mr. God of Game Developing.