@famousringo
It's been quite some years since when I studied something about classical rethorical forms, but the point is that you're talking about description, not narration. Leveraging a fictional setting such as the Wuhu island and the activities that you can enjoy there is not narrative, because narration implies a timeline and a sequence of events affecting the characters. To go with your examples most books and movies are examples of narrative, as well as some photographic creations. But not all photos try to tell a story, exactly as not all games do.
Thus the author is simply talking nonsense when he calls it such and when he compares it to the kind of emergent plot that can actually result in open-world games that have proper characters and a concept of key events and consequences.
Again, I understand the value of such a pure gaming experience as WSR or SMG. And being curious or entertained by the setting or by the resemblances of the Miis with famous people is all good for you if it adds value to your experience. It's the foggy, confused and overwritten attempt at an analysis that I found so weird to suggest a parody.
I'm just suggesting that we should not suspend our healthy criticism just because an opinion agrees with our personal inclinations.
