Well yes, you would indeed feel tense and scenes would be suspenseful because that's a part of the hectic action that the game puts you through. If there was anything I found frightening about the combat in the game it was that most of it involved close quarters encounters with sharp instruments, only multiplied by ten. The backtracking in four you referenced wasn't quite the same as returning to the already horrific fun house mansion filled up with hunters and crimson zombies (Another newly added mechanic that was practically genius in the context for the backtracking) To add, when I noted all those things, I wasn't exactly criticizing them for what they were, but listing what I thought was totally off the wall of what RE would be.
Of course I don't take any offense to what you said.
I can certainly understand why you would see the newer games as still deserving of the title. To me it would seem that you enjoy the excitement that the series offers to you, period, in no matter what fashion it's delivered. There's nothing wrong with that at all! You love it for what it is, and you believe it's right to the source material. However from my view, I would think that in this way, you're confusing the fear and suspense that a game like RE1/2 would administer as compared to the fourth or firth title. You said it yourself that the newer games aren't like the old, and that's what I and others would take issue with since it bares the name "Resident Evil."