This is a typical issue for this kind of technology though - the fact that you CAN do a shooter is more significant than when this game was a shooter at the core, in which case making an original shooter would have been the focus. However, if it is really easy to do a shooter or a racing game, then an original version of one or one that makes good use of the LBP specific properties will emerge soon enough.
And that is of course apart from the issue that to create something from scratch you need a lot of different talents or a good small team of people who have the talents combined, and that's of course a lot more rare than the single creator who ... well ... doesn't possess all of these qualities.
Nothing wrong with that - so far I feel that good content has surfaced pretty well in LBP. The new content publication features in LBP2 look like they'll definitely help make this even easier. I'll be able to subscribe to Jaeyden, say, and see on the web (iPhone?) what levels he's published and hearted, can queue these immediately, and then prompted to play them the next time I boot up LBP2. Great.
The GAF thread is showing more and more cool content.
I do agree though that LBP2 is so incredibly good from the perspective of people like you and me that it is hard to accept that it is even possible for the game to get the attention it deserves.
My feeling on this is that there are three parts to the game, and each of them has its own audience:
1. single player game. As a platformer, the game was highly original in a number of ways, and as such, slightly less accessible to people used to traditional platformers who expect very strict mechanics and direct control. Accessibility was further compounded by unpredictable controls as you've demonstrated and tricky use of the depth layers. Besides that, it is a platformer and when LBP was released, there weren't that many platforming fans. On the other side, the character customisation, online and offline (mixed and with own user profiles) multiplayer for up to four playerse with voice chat were neat features.
2. downloadable user levels. A great extension of LBP, this allows you to get new levels almost infinitely, and greatly enhances the single player game for those who venture online and willing to find new levels to play.
3. create your own levels. An amazing creation suite to make your own levels made available to people who want to build their own platformers.
How could this change for LBP2?
I don't think the success of 3 should be underestimated - there was a significant number of people making levels. There are millions of levels created, and most people can only have five of these online at the same time. With the vast improvements over this, I don't think we'll have to worry that enthusiasm for this aspect will decrease any time soon.
For 2, as a result partly of the improvements in creation, and partly because of the vastly improved online (lbp.me etc.) and in-game features for finding levels, I think there's big potential for this to become more successful as well.
For 1, the first single player campaign was the first stuff ever created with the engine. It's strength and weaknesses in terms of gameplay have since become clear from reactions to the single player game and the user levels. A few downloadable levels have been published since as well as the PSP version and have shown progressive improvement in playability. The audience is growing as well, with PS3 moving into a better price range and reaching beyond the more hardcore, as well as the whole Move push that at least in theory should bring some Wii owners to the PS3. The price of entry can likely stay low, or go low again soon after release as did LBP, partly thanks to the sales of DLC like the various outfits (though I presume some of that is also used to pay for servers/bandwidth). And of course the single player campaign can benefit from the new graphics and gameplay innovations as well.
I think the stars are pretty well aligned. Hopefully at the very least they'll be able to sell the game to existing LBP players - the biggest risk for me is probably that some people who own the original will think 'I already have an LBP, I don't need another one' ...
