I agree that a lot of companies do put an emphasis on money nowadays and it's shame really. And some games don't fulfill their potential because of this but hey, it happens with just about any business.
With the graphics I sorta agree with you but films are similar in a way. People just like shiny things, like me but I don't mind if the games don't look good, just as long as they play well and are enjoyable.
There are quite a few new innovative ideas in games but imo most of them fail because people don't like change. Look at CoD for example, the last three CoD games have been exactly the same apart from looks, they all play exactly the same even though they are made by two different studios. If they changed how it worked and tried new things, they'd lose custom. Kinda ties in with your first point about money.