Correct, LucasArts has a great publish catalogue and lots of IP that people were/are big fans of.
The admitted difference between LucasArts and EA was that LucasArts internally shifted IP priorities, and drove off many of the iconic game development personalities like Tim Schaffer and Ron Gilbert for example. The equivelant would be Cliffy B leaving Epic Games because they wanted to focus on casual gaming. EA on the otherhand (as I understand it) folded/merged satillite development firms like Origin and Westwood so while the priorities of those development firms may have shifted, EA itself was continuing its business model.
That and I don't think there are many grand tales of "THE AXE IS COMING DOWN! OUR IMAGINATION IS ON THE BLACK LIST!" from ex-Origin employees. Chris Roberts and Richard Gariott were not "forced" out of their positions and left rather to pursue other interests.
The big thing to remember about LucasArts was that the "great disturbance in the Force" came about with the new prequilogy movies, and during that time there was a sudden demand for Star Wars property games, thus the business model changed from internally created properties to the Star Wars properties. The amount of Star Wars LucasArts products within the span of the first two new movies nearly doubled that of the orginal catalogue for Star Wars games, and new IP was sliced in half in that time period.
Jim Ward, the previous CEO of LucasArts before the current one, stated that LucasArts would not be returning to adventure gaming
"until at least 2015". If you remember, the new Indiana Jones game was announced far back in 2004, but was shelved in favor of the "Force Unleashed" game which carried over the engine development. Aside from Fracture and Thrillville and Lego Indy, all of LucasArts games from 2005 on were Star Wars games.
Talk about a Jedi overload.
To sum up, yes, LucasArts from a fan prespective is that bad. Activision/Blizzard is currently following LucasArts' business model. EA has already passed through that phase, and again that means good things.