Shigeru Miyamoto vs Hideo Kojima vs Hironobu Sakaguchi. The Rating Game.

[MDMAlliance]

Miyamoto had the biggest influence if we talk about it on an objective scale.
As for myself as a gamer, it's actually Sakaguchi
For point #2, I would say Chrono Trigger. Though it seems like Sakaguchi was a designer + supervisor for the game rather than the director.