I get the narrative you're trying to paint here, but it's really just not true. None of what you mention is a focal point of the game. The focal points are its story telling, level design, enemy AI, etc. I think this is reflected well in reviews from when it was released [1] [2].

Whereas Half Life 2 was definitely a big ol tech demo of the source engine.

[1] https://www.ign.com/articles/1998/11/26/half-life-5

[2] https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/half-life-review/1900-25373...