There is validity to all of your statement and everyone can have their own opinions.
I certainly remember the complaints of the cartoony graphics, as well as the presentation of those graphics (having the WY security in big orange jumpsuits or big purple/blue jumpsuits) taking people out of the experience. And I remember the scripted events also taking people out of the game after the first playthrough because there was no chance for new scares with something else happening at random like there was in the first AvP. You knew everything that was coming.
The graphics were cartoony. I always got a heavy Jurassic Park (movie) vibe from the presentation of AvP2. Not sure why. But they didn't gamebreak it for me. I always preferred the scripted sequences over AvPs random spawns because they were more immersive to the story. The story is not lighting anything on fire, but it just worked better than the absolutely bare bones campaign we got in the first one.
Lithtech has always seemed to suffer from proportion to me. Everything was too blocky in AvP2, everything was too tall and angular in FEAR (every character looks about 6'6") and in FEAR2 things got closer to being the right proportions but still not exactly right. The geometry of the enviroments look better but certain designs on the characters look wtf. Dudes running around with size 18 shoes.
I wasted lots of time with both, but AvP2 is my winner. I loved everything about the original AvP2 campaign and mp (I was one of the best Prae players to ever do it) and I loved the fact that almost a decade after it was released I was still playing new SP campaigns made by the fans. Infinitely boosting its life.
I don't agree that the game was any more linear than the original. And AvP2 had huge maps with tons of shit to explore that added to the lore of the game. So even if you could only progress the level a certain way, for years afterwards I would find Pred supply points and human notes WAY off the beaten bath of where I was supposed to go.
To each their own though.