Yeah, it’s valid to dislike AITSF. I disagree on literally every single one of your points, but hey, what can you do.

I guess the point I wanted to make (and god do I hope I don’t sound argumentative while saying this) is that the Zero Escape series (and often VLR alone) doesn’t follow the three rules laid out in your post either.

1. In ZTD, the characters are aware of Delta, while the player isn’t due to misleading camera angles. I have yet to hear of anyone ever guessing that there’s a fourth member of Q-Team prior to the reveal, but you never know.
2. In VLR, Sigma’s identity as a 67 year-old man is largely discovered due to an accident. VLR’s also pretty twisty IMO, and is filled with the kinds of “big revelations” that it doesn’t sound like you’re a fan of. That’s just my opinion, though.
3. This is technically true, but because VLR likes to mislead the player, there is no way that the player could ever guess that Zero is Sigma, or that Sigma’s secretly an old man. There are lines that make it obvious in hindsight, sure, but for every one of these lines is something that reinforces the initial assumption that Sigma is a 22 year-old man (e.x. his arms appearing to be that of a 22 year-old’s, even if they’re prosthetic)

VLR’s also a game that throws the concept of Knox’s Ten Commandents at you, which is a set of ten rules that their creator believed every “good” mystery should follow (ignore the really racist one, lmao). VLR then goes and disobeys every single one of them, as if Uchikoshi’s deliberately going “nah, mysteries don’t have to follow rules.”

I hope this doesn’t sound too argumentative! It’s perfectly fine to dislike or even hate the AITSF series, regardless of whether you’re a fan of Uchikoshi’s other works. I just don’t believe that the ZE series follows the rules outlined in your post, and I don’t believe they’re fair grounds to criticize AITSF on because of that.