I think RPG elements have a lot of potential to raise the overall quality of a game. As OP stated, titles like Borderlands or Demons' Souls favor from them a lot but some genres are better off without them in the long run. Besides RPGs, I play a lot of fighting games and I honestly don't think role-playing elements fit anywhere in the genre and even if some shooters have done good mixes, the ones that don't tend to be better in the end. Halo, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, etc are better and more competitive/deep shooters without the real use of RPG elements.
But in RPGs themselves, I usually favor Japanese ones over western titles. I just find the art, styles and gameplay more appealing. Western RPGs fall into either the medieval style (The Witcher, Elder Scrolls, etc) or the deep-space sci-fi one (Mass Effect, KOTOR), while the Japanese games dare to be more fantasy-based and even mix technology and magic in the same world, resulting in some very awesome universes to play in.