you've got to remember that RDV is old, relatively speaking. it was started around mid-2010, when bloodswaps weren't really heard of and the idea hadn't been beaten to death. you're calling it uncreative because bloodswaps abound in fandom now- but when RDV was started, they didn't.

RDV's age even shows in the story itself- aradia is portrayed a lot like her dead/robot self because it was begun before we ever learned what she was like alive. i enjoy RDV because it was one of the first. nowadays, okay, maybe it's not done nearly as well or as detailed or thought-out as other bloodswaps, but it did what it did well, and other writers have since improved on the formula.