I agree with your sentiments about Brutal Legend,Joe. It's weird because overall it really is a straight up sand-box action game but then "blam", the RTS segments are thrown in there sloppily.
I guess in a way it's befitting. Maybe fights with "Metal Gods" should entail erecting fan-booths and fighting whole armies but it's a jarring shift between radically different genres. Luckily, I was able to get into the RTS battles but I totally understand why it was a huge turn-off to others.
I'm glad I could shed some light on good games that got discouteously shoved to the way-side! If you can at least rent Binary Domain. It's a great game!