Woah, I never thought of X5 as such a disappointment.... Yes X4 was better, but did that automatically make X5 a bad game? Sequels often don't live up to original works (X4 was the first X series game of the then current gen) which is often observed even without budget constraints. That was not the case here, this was not a bad game in any regard - solid gameplay, solid soundtrack, some added features since the previous title but much of the same goodness I liked in X4, multiple armours which were cool (admittedly I hated not being able to use the individual parts / having to collect all 4 parts, but I guess that was a result of there being multiple armours). The game lacked anime sequences, which was a huge letdown to my younger self. But I didn't hate this game at all. The plot was enjoyable enough, the soundtrack was fantastic. I really enjoyed X5, I was and have always been a huge Megaman fan. Played this when it first came out and wasn't disappointed. I find the notion that this game was "so bad"/ cheap a bit ridiculous.
For those of us who played it when the game came out we had no idea what was going on with Capcom and just judged the game on its own merits, and I prefer assessing it in that way. You can always look at what was planned Vs what we got and slate the final product.
Some of my favourite games of all time, such as Soul Reaver PS1, were never completed and ended up missing a significant amount of content compared to what was planned. Does that make it bad / cheap? Nah