Gameplay is the most important part and will always be, if you just want a "experience" then go read a book or watch a movie.

Nope. I disagree with you. If I want to experience an interactive story then I play a video game. What is gameplay to you? 

You can go to youtube and watch all the branching paths or even pretend you press a button and load the right video. Gameplay is the group of mechanics and rules that make a game fun, just like football, just like monopoly, just like hide and seek. Video games have stories and such to keep you playing and move the scenery along , but story is not the focus by itself if it was then you can just watch a video or read a book and skip gameplay altogether.

So is walking around and being able to look at things in a cinematic adventure game.
And being able to shoot things in a third person shooter.

Myst was pretty lousy in it's point and click gameplay. It was praised for letting you get you immersed in a virtual world, not for the point and click gameplay, which many games had done better before Myst. Gameplay was just adequate in Myst.

Nope. When I watch a playthrough of Dear Esther I can't look at what I want, I can't turn back, I can't walk slower to ponder over what I just heard or saw, I can't walk faster when I spot something interesting in the distance. It's not the same. With a video I'm not involved, I'm a passive observer watching someone else play. It's fundamentally different.

Never played an outdoors puzzle quest kind of game as a kid? Follow a path set out by markers? That's considered a game too. Heck adults still do it, it's called geocaching.

Not to him. Not to me and not to others. Why so hostile to other people's enjoyment? You don't like them don't buy them, or if you must, write reviews saying why you don't like them, make a book or movie to show your contempt for them, or just stick to posts dismissing them and us; calling them movies and telling us to find enjoyment elsewhere. Just don't expect us to agree, do as say, or stop paying for our video game experiences.

You say that instead of an "interactive story" you can go to youtube and just watch it, and then you say that if story was the focus, you could just watch a video and skip the gameplay. You're advocating skipping the gameplay to watch the game instead. You're trying to make a point like it's a ridiculous notion.

..completely forgetting that video-game playthroughs are actually a huge thing on youtube, because people actually do like to just watch.

I never play a game for the "gameplay" but it can ruin a game or be it's saving grace to a person. I choose to play games based on it's theme/genre and if I want to be immersed in that world or not. As long as the gameplay helps me become immersed in the game, it doesn't matter how much or little there is of it. 

It doesnt matter what you do or what you like I'm just telling you what is the most important part in a game. Gameplay is everything, it doesn't matter the subject what matters is if it is fun. If the gameplay is fun I don't care if is an ISIS bomber simulator

If you are playing games based only on the theme or world thats fine but you are missing out on all sort of great games with little focus on theme/story/world.

I cant agree more with OP, the experience is what matters, gameplay is just means to and end and is as important as graphics, setting, story, characters etc.