That's pretty much what many of us have been saying. Prometheus got such a mixed reception after having been hyped all to hell, then Blomkamp gets a whole mess of attention just from posting some concept images he was fooling around with... everyone starts talking about it... getting Michael Biehn involved... sounds like a sure thing until Scott suddenly announces that A:C is gonna come "first". And when you look at Covenant... with its Ripley facsimile (sorry, but that's what the character gives the impression of even if she's a fine actress), Scott's sudden need to rearrange everything in the lore. The "Tracking the Xenomorph" clip is even further proof that AC is a hybrid of Alien and Aliens, with a dollup of Prometheus thrown in.
Ridley makes absolutely gorgeous films, and I don't doubt that Coventant is full of eye-candy like few other films, but he's never made me laugh, nor cry, nor really care for any of the characters in his films. (The exception might be Blade Runner, but I'd give more credit to Hauer and Ford for bringing across the emotion in that one- especially since Hauer improvised the most memorable line in the movie.) As iconic as the first movie was, it was Cameron's sequel that made it quotable and entrenched it in popular culture. If he hadn't made Riley into the incredible character she is, the first film would have become a curiosity. And while Aliens has a few dodgy FX (the dropship landing among other things) Stan Winston's creature FX stand the test of time- every shot of the Xeno in the sequel still hold up, whereas many of the ones in Alien just look silly today. (The last several times I've seen it in theaters, people have laughed out loud at the chestburster scene.)