Well, i would argue, if i look at the longlivety of Hack’n’Slay, i mean look at Diablo 2 people played it for 12 Years, than the major aspect which keeps the People going, is the Gameplay as well the Grind for Gear. Story / Lore is something which most HnS have only as execuse to have one, compared to real RPGs they are often way behind.
Diablo 3 with it’s great Storytelling(though Diablo in general also had an neat lore, but was never that flashed out), Grim Dawn with it’s great more fleshed out lore Lore and also Van Helsing were nice too, are the only three Hack’N’Slay which if you ask me, have somewhat of good Story and Lore, and this are only recent games… and even there i would argue the majority of people who play it for the lore / story are the minority… the huge majority of the playerbase play it for the Gameplay / Grind / Build Characters…
Also the “Clicker Argument” is wonky too. It’s like if someone plays need for speed for racing instead of Story and you would recommend them some cheap lowbudget smartphone racing game… Grim Dawn have way more substance gameplaywise which why Grinding is fun to begin with…