dtgreene: Or they can benefit from not having gameplay, in the usual sense, at all. Just put the story in a visual novel, with the occasional choice that would appear in a visual novel, and don't bother with character growth or combat mechanics; they're not needed if a game is going to focus on non-gameplay aspects.
You'd sure want to make it so I'd never play games, eh? :)) (Speaking of disliked genres...)
In genres other than VNs and walking sims, the gameplay is what makes the player the active, and usually main, participant, puts them in that setting and story and makes them actually do the things the character does, in some way, not just say that those things are done. That creates immersion at a level impossible for passive forms of content like books or movies. (Which is not to say that VNs and walking sims can't also do that, and in case of walking sims vs. movies it's quite a given, but not at the level of genres that require far more player involvement.) That doesn't carry any requirement of a challenge, the challenge is for those seeking either a feeling of achievement, usually if the relative difficulty increases, or power, if it decreases. Or both, if done well.