I hear what your saying. You are correct. Buuuut, I agree with OP too.

Arguably, I would say do both. Partly for the academic side and partly because a lot of ideas exist that could do with some TLC.

A version of After Earth that's less awkward maybe?

I recently saw Iron Mask, a not amazing martial arts movie where Jackie Chan fights Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's the best part of the movie by far but if you could do more with that as an idea? Especially paying for more than one fight scene.

Though, struggling to think of examples as my movie knowledge isn't too extensive. And it can be tricky to deal with 'didn't work but had potential' and 'cult classic/niche appeal'. Like I think the Five Nights At Freddie's movie is a mess but a really entertaining mess that I'm not certain how to 'fix' without removing from the gonzo camp they landed on, that I then liked.