Time for the PS3? 
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Yes it is. More powerful hardware can take gameplay to new levels. You don't need great graphics to create a great game. But great graphics can make a great game even greater, and take gameplay to levels not possible on hindering hardware. 
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In regards to the HL2 quote, HL2 gameplay has as much in common with the original Wolfenstein as Devil May Cry 3 has with the original Ninja Gaiden. Of course they all follow the same base premise if you strip everything away. That's why they're the same genre. But it's precisely the new features allowed by better technology that has took the action experience into areas we used to only dream of. Trying to say HL2 is just a pretty package makes you sound like an arrogant, and ignorant for that matter, retro gaming elitist. 
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Simple fact is, relatively speaking the PS2 is a weak piece of hardware. If consoles put technical power first we could be so much farther ahead right now in that area. And that weak PS2 hardware is holding back gameplay evolution. Not gameplay evolution as a whole but many specifics areas. I'm a dreamer, so that way I see it is that these "great games" could be even better with big advancements in physics, A.I., particle systems, and general rendering dynamics. I'm never totally content, I always desire improvement. 
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Take Dynasty Warriors for example. If they had made DW5 on the PC with a Source-quality engine, we'd have a new DW experience that would put the new PS2 DW5 to shame. Look at how HL2 evolutionized the FPS genre, if HL was a Sony series that evolution wouldn't of been possible because the PS2 would of held it back. Look at how FF7 took gaming story-telling to a unheard new level -- an evolutionzed dictated by the flow of technology, not developer creativity. Look at how Age of Empires 3 is going to immerse us in a miltary game unlike anything we've experienced thus far. Many games are heavily reliant on visual presentation and technical power, from cutscenes, to weather effects, to number# of models rendered on screen, to dynamic physics. 
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So why stem that game evolution? 
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It's OK to demand better hardware. Anyone that calls you a graphics whore based on that merit alone is an elitist prick.