Yeah the whole fan layout thing is kind of old. Like was said earlier a lot of the really popular games all have a very similiar layout. Hell even 2 of Sterns biggest games have it, LOTR and SM. SM has the third flipper, but hell it bears quite a resemblance to AFM and MM shot wise, at least to me.
I think given how long pinball has been around, there is not much more that can be done with it, in regards to layout. With so many games being out there, there is always going to be something in a game that reminds you of another game.
I know Stern catches a lot of flak for reusing old layouts with newer themes, but I really don't think it's that bad. What I mean by that, is say there is a really good layout that you enjoy but the rules, theme, or whatever just kill the experience for you. Would you not enjoy playing that exact same game with a better ruleset, them, etc?
I think a lot of it comes down to rulesets, art, music, essentially the whole package. Hell if you look at video games, people have been playing the same games for years, just with different variations.