You got the feeling they were desperate to point out how they had '60 games to show' and didn't want the conference to last 3 hours so I guess it meant not showing much gameplay.
That's not a valid reason at all, because the problem wasn't needing more time. Rather, it was using the time already allotted.
The Halo Infinite segment was nothing but a complete waste of time and the Gears 5 segment was similarly embarrassing. I don't need to see a full match of Escape from Gears 5, put together a highlight trailer of 90 to 120 seconds showcasing what is supposed to be the killer new addition to a game that is releasing in three months. Gears 5 had a great trailer last year that surprisingly impressed me and interested me, and to a much lesser extent, Halo Infinite the same - how do you go from that to what we saw this year? What was the point of the introductory CG Gears 5 trailer this year that, if anything, diminishes the mystery and subtlety set-up by last year's trailer?
It's telling of the developers involved, and likely points to why these franchises aren't what they used to be, unfortunately.
Meanwhile, Microsoft did an excellent job selling their two current killer apps in Xbox Gamepass and Forza Horizon. Time wasn't the issue.