Which car is better designed? That depends on the design goals IMO. I think both cars meet their design goals. They are both well designed. I also think their design goals are so different that talking about better designed loses much if it’s meaning here.
Instead the pertinent question seems to me to be, why did they choose the design goals that they did and what effect did achieving those design goals have upon their commercial success.
The same for RPGs.
Agreed. Of course, we are not often given the actual design goals the writers were aiming for, so that can be difficult.
One thing I have been saying for a whole now, and I will keep saying, is that when you ask the question, "Is this more/better designed?" the question is incomplete. The question more fully stated is "Is this better designed
for specific purpose X?"
If you leave off the purpose, the question cannot be answered.
Frequently, when folks say things like this, the implicit purpose is "meeting my particular desires". The result is that two gamers, looking for different things, can have vastly different opinions on whether a game is well designed. So, in this case, we'd have to actually be up front with our own preferences before talking about the design.
And, there is a third option. Do not worry about the goals. Do not worry about your personal desires. Whatever the designers goals, or our own desires, the thing is what it is - one can discuss what it does well, and what it doesn't do well - you can discuss
where/how you find the fun in each given system, and decide if that's the fun you want to have.
This last requires a bit of dispassion from the person doing the analysis. The game may be very good at doing things that you don't happen to like, and you have to set aside yourself for a moment and own up that this is okay.
Sometimes you can see this in movies. I use
Sin City as an example. I do not like the movie. However, I recognize that it is
very well made, and is very effective at what it does - which just happens to be stuff that I don't usually want to watch.