While I think RE4 is very enjoyable, I still feel iffy about it sometimes. Because I think it's a brilliant game, but I cannot say it really ever felt properly connected to the prior games about Umbrella. Even Leon didn't look nor act like how he did in RE2.
I think RE in general became kind of shitty and confusing after RE5. 6 wasn't that great, and there was a lot of really awful spin off games and movies that came out during the last couple of decades. The story became a jumbled up mess as well, with so many deep holes, you could drive vans into them.
Now granted, some people don't care much for the plot at all. But for anyone who does, it all went to shit after 2005.
2021's RE8 really made me want to quit the franchise for good. It was that dumb.