RE being badly written should not surprise anyone anymore, and I have no idea why people act like this franchise was always a good story. I still don't fault anyone, including myself, for being frustrated that the series squanders its story so much. It's weird since Capcom can make good stories, see DMC 3 and 5, or at least good moments and themes. Then again, we get some of the Mega Man X stories....and hoo boy. Those are laugh able at times.
RE has some good moments, and the files can be interesting if not great in the original games pre-5. But anyone who claims any game in the series is better then the other sorely for its story is fucking stupid. The amount of people, especially on YouTube, who I otherwise thought were valid and respectable in their opinions that said post-RE5 games have great stories, and that RE5 is better then 4 sorely for taking itself seriously....are you out of your mind? RE4 not taking itself seriously was the point! RE5's story taking itself seriously is why its so bad, not to mention Wesker takes a lot of its seriousness out.
RE2make I'd say is the ONLY time RE took itself seriously and worked, but it had the original game to work off so I don't think it can count. There's no other non remake or mainline game, besides maybe REmake since it is a very different story and I believe it is now considered the canonical mansion incident, that has a good story that took itself quite seriously.