Raw power can never replace good design. It can aid good design though with more advanced AI for example.
Most of the time the extra power budget gets spent on visuals however instead of improving performance the game just pushes more pixels and effects. Not that visuals are unimportant, good and concise visual design is an integral part of interacting with games, but photorealism isn't integral to games.

^ This

In all cases it means better gameplay when increasing the framerate. That's why hardware is always important. But the problem is never the hardware, it's always about what the developer fucks up with it.

Better games is certainly not an argument against proper hardware.

I really don't care about power anymore. It used to be important, but since the 6th generation, consoles are powerful enough, and for me, they don't need to be any better. More power means a more expensive console, so I actually prefer them not to be too powerful.

Not anymore. Developers today have enough resources to make anything they could possibly imagine. All they really need are good ideas, power is not an issue anymore. With more power games only get shinier, but they are still the same games. Nothing changes in terms of gameplay.

It's like with cameras. You don't need a highend camera for a good photo. You only need a good motive. A good camera can bring a little more detail and make a smoother image. But a great image will always be a great image, no matter if its shot in 4K, 8K or whatever.

Of course not. But is more power objectively better then less power? Of course it is.

More power just means it's definitely capable and has got the means to be a better game because the developers have more to play about with, whether that be more better longer deeper story, beautiful visuals or a better way to bring the characters to life and make gamers connect with them . But unless the developer has got the imagination and creativity to use that power then it means nothing.

It can, but it's entirely up to the developer. I remember writing about his in the UNITY thread, and I've been really disappointed in how they've failed to use hardware advances to really evolve gaming in the 7th and 8th gen, especially when it comes to interactivity and AI and less use of scripted events and waypoints.

There is still so much to be explored in gaming, but seemingly so few willing to actually explore it. And with budgets being what they are and huge conglomerate publishers owning most developers in some form or other, it's really hard to see the mainstream moving in any dramatic (literally, when it comes to writing) direction any time soon.

Haven't we seen a game that was produced on a "powerful" console be poorly optimized? More power doesn't necessarily mean a better game. The skills of the developer is what counts, in my opinion.

Imagine BoTW built to make the best of say the PS4 hardware.

Would you consider that a "better" game?

More power doesn't directly mean better game, it means less limitations, more opportunities and an all round better looking game.

So going back to the BoTW thing, it would have looked much much better than it does now. And thats not a bad thing.