Again, all I can really say is that this is not my experience. My group has been meeting every fortnight or so for 20-odd years. If we were young and free like we once were, it would probably be more often! (As it was back in the 90s.)Without "painting a picture" as you say, player interest drops and the game dies. If the DM presents nothing but bare bones facts without any exposition, no oratory, no actual theatricalism (if I could coin a term), then that DM is going to lose his players to other forms of media which ARE far more entertaining. Like it or not, being entertaining is part and parcel to good DMing and particularly important to good scenario design. And part of being entertaining is how you present that information.
I've been the GM for most of that time. I'm not notorious for my modesty, but I've also got a reasonable sense of my limitations. I'm not a great performer. The reason I haven't lost "my" players isn't because they find me entertaining. It's because RPGing offers a different experience from other sorts of entertainment.
This is what I mean when I talk about orienting towrads the strengths of RPGing (ie the collective creativity, and from the player's point of view being the protagonist) rather than the weaknesses (ie that amateur performers/storytellers will compete with professionals).