Hi, thanks for reading. I agree that the comparatively frequent potential for degenerate strategies suggests Kojima to intentionally move beyond the template of typical good game design. On a very basic level, I think Kojima should be seen as someone really indebted to the basic properties of linear narrative media, his intent in game design, it seems to me, is the player being able to experience and take part in the narrative. For this, it is accepted that a lack of skill should not hinder the player at being able to get the full experience. Sometimes his games therefore offer quite easy accessible, almost degenerate strategies.
I find this particularly pronounced in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Here, compared to earlier entries', the avatar's set of options to engage with enemies grew quite a lot. However, I found myself frequently using the tranquilizer gun which sufficiently allowed to solve most challenges. In this game and some of its sequels the player is presented with a basic tool so powerful that many of the more complex options offered by the game are almost optional regarding completing a playthrough.
I also agree with your assessment of The Phantom Pain. Here, the player is really rewarded for engaging with the complex set of systems. In that way, I consider it very much different from its predecessors (with Peace Walker as a kind of transition inside the series) because it does not offer any kind of basic, almost degenerate strategy but rather forces players to repeatedly engage anew with the system thanks to its adaptive difficulty, Returning, again, to my own experience of playing it, I first relied heavily on tranquilized guns as it was so highly efficient in the game's predecessors but then struggled more and more as the enemies adapted.
In conclusion, I think the (often easy) access to degenerate strategies highlights Kojima's priorities in game design and indeed as you wrote"could add/enrich our reference to him in romantic/authorial terms".
Thank you for taking the time to comment.

Thanks for reading and the great comment. Personally, I would love Death Stranding (or any following Kojima game) to be balanced similar to MGS3 which I felt was able present fully fledged thematic treatments while not frequently interrupting the player's engagement with the mechanics. I found both Peace Walker and MGSV's outsourcing of its narrative to the optional tapes while theoretically a good idea, made both feel a empty in their narration. Admittedly, this feeling was maybe heightened because while the potential to engage with the game's mechanics was improved the barrage of grinding mechanics stashed away in the base management sections felt like a poor replacement for what was lost elsewhere. So, I would like if Death Stranding puts more focus on its narration and that engagement with the mechanics might not be enforced through stopping the narrative's progress. I very much enjoy the template of MGS1-4, it just sometimes (2,4) felt that nobody bothered with reconsidering what should be an obligatory part of the narration and what might be better served only to players actively wanting more. Based on the trailers, I imagine Death Stranding will feature more linear storytelling than MGSV not just because of the hired talent but also because Kojima is finally away from MGS and free to present ideas and concepts unshakled from the burden of an established diegetic world.
I'm not even sure what I find most interesting about Kojima's style. There are several elements which I would consider. For starters, his ambition in presenting serious thematic issues. In many video games, if the designers have to choose between pushing a thematic issue up front or concentrating on the "game" they choose the second. Here, Kojima is relentless, this might be excessive (the ending of MGS2) but it also suggests someone really invested in the specific issues and how they can be presented in a video game. I find his emotional honesty, the sincerity in which he engages with them touching. This is someone who, for me, did not merely flesh out the story of MGS to motivate the nuclear weapons as a McGuffin but someone who really cares about the question of nuclear disarmament. At different times, Kojima's games can be engaging in terms of intellect (replaying MGS2 is almost eery these days) and emotion (the ending of MGS3 is a personal highlight). That's a rare feat although often helped by his reliance on established forms. Besides all this, they are also really enjoyable games often with a silly sense of humor to balance the otherwise serious nature of the presentation.
One particular aspect I also find very interesting is Kojima's ambivalent stance to US culture. He very much mirrors myself and other 'foreign' audiences from a US viewpoint that it really appeals to him on one level but he also is partly at odds with it and some of its values. He almost always (if it were not for Boktai) models his games after US film but puts a spin on them based on his own cultural background. I also felt that this very much motivated MGSV's treatment of language which was less US-centric and instead concentrated on how the English language and the anglophone world influences us that are frequently engaged with it but nonetheless not part of it.
Thanks for your comment and its not that long until we all see what Kojima's post-Metal Gear vision will be.