Coolness is a disease of our times, I think. Everything has to be cool, whatever that means. In a world where game making is a big profitting industry, games like thief are expected to be an exception. Same thing goes for the movies. You need a story, or an idea, then, the way to make it happen. They have the means to make it, but they are out of ideas. They don't like the original thief, or at least, if the do, they're not sure why they liked it, maybe they just think it's cooool. So, why don't make it a little more cool by adding a lot of crap to it. You could clearly see that when they changed the rope arrows for the climbing boots in T3. It's really useless to expect them to make a new and better thief, because their job is making money, not art, not original stuff. The fact that thief have been both, is a real miracle. That's my humble opinion.