I would definitely not say that the developer lacked imagination.
Could you say that the developer using names from real life objects to call their weapons in the game not original and uncreative? I suppose you could say that but then you could also apply that logic to any video game with any name that is from another video game. I'd say using french products is actually quite a clever use of a different language to create interesting boss and item names.
This game is very rich with originality that people look past. They see only the names of the weapons and armors and the design and think they're just ripping them from other games or sources. But this aspect is like 10% of the game. The areas are all completely unique, the enemy designs are all fantastic and original. I've never seen a game before PSO that had an enemy design and art style quite like this game. It truly is otherworldly.
The world design is gorgeous. For a game that is so old it's so cool that the game is still so advanced that people actively try to make it look as gorgeous as possible through modding and blur effects and other such things. If the world wasn't beautiful at it's core I don't think people would spend so much time trying to make it look prettier because a bad looking game in high graphics and blur is just a blurry shitty looking game in HD.
The sky boxes look fantastic as well when you're in areas and they are all themed fairly well to the areas you explore. The music is fantastic. If you play PSO with the BGM on you should be fairly pleased with the sound because all, yes, ALL of the scores in the game are very well done in their own way.