Mass Effect's Strengths and Weaknesses

What makes Mass Effect really special when compared to other RPGs is most definitely the storytelling. However this storytelling comes at a price as Mass Effect does not allow the player the amount of freedom in gameplay as most other RPG franchises. My questions are: do you think Mass Effect should allow more freedom at the cost of the story, or should they keep it like it is? If you picked the first choice, do you think it's possible to add more freedom and keep the great storytelling and characters that we have become used to in Mass Effect?