Pretentiousness is only there in the eye of the beholder. You're saying you had high expectations that Human Revolution didn't fulfill. I might say Braid is pretentious, but all that would mean is that I wasn't moved by the game's art style, mechanics or narrative structure. That word wouldn't be used properly.
Personally, I think HR accomplished everything it set out to do. You're all free to disagree, of course. You've got more player freedom than in Generic FPS No. 346, what little narrative choices you do make are meaningful, the world feels much more alive than anything Oblivion or Skyrim could ever dish out, and only thanks to the plethora of eBooks and emails to read - and the gameplay isn't terribly punishing if you're considering approaching Deus Ex as something other than a shooter.
It's an adaptive game. Seeing as the current standbys revolve around shooting guys in the face behind chest-high walls in brownish-gray locales while controlling a cross between a Mack truck and a football quarterback, I'm glad we've got Human Revolution around. It's not perfect by any stretch of the word, but what is there is pretty sweet.
As for Skyrim, it's probably going to be good, much in the same way I personally found that Fallout 3 was awesome, despite all the bugs. It's not everybody's game, however. It'll probably make it to Game of the Year on sales figures alone, but we all have to learn to step away from the hype machine.
You've watched the demo and you didn't find it appealing? Fine. There's several other titles coming out between now and the end of the fiscal year. I think we can all agree that the OP is being a little naive, but it's not like the opinion of a single blogger doubles as some sort of irrepressible command to go out and buy that thing.