It’s because what they brought from Assault Horizon was what it did best, cinematic moments.
They didn’t drag DFM out to be an entire dogfight, they used it at the perfect moment when they needed to show a panicking stressful moment.
Also the OST shouldn’t be scoffed at too.
This got me thinking.
I've yet to see anyone complain about the Assault Horizon bits in 8.
It makes me believe that those bits are fine and DFM was the thing that soured everyone's opinion on Assault Horizon.