Everything you said is exactly what makes him special. His game is all about the quick connections, moving the ball around quickly. In fact, his tempo and drive on the ball is better than Busquets' (who uses feints in his advantage instead). What Samper is doing is exactly what Xavi got stick for doing too when he was younger. Something about being too boring.
He makes more vertical passes and passing between the lines than Gomes, who has played his best (low bar) games at DM, that's for sure, and he did do some nice ones vs Madrid for a pretty damn shit team with no, genuinely no, attacking movement from a heavy 9 like Kravets and no wingers. And because of that simple fact, that there are never any attacking options available, how can you expect him to go full Iniesta and constantly split opposition lines?
Also, I find it weird that you try to make it sound like a bad thing that he has learned things from the best DM in the game for the past 6-8 years and trying to replicate it
I can't think of anything more normal to do from the legends of your position, ESPECIALLY when Busquets has all the things Samper is striving for, tackling, defensive positioning and physique.
But fair enough. I do agree that his development is not going the right way, which it hasn't been for the 2nd season in a row now. Hopefully a new coach will join whom Samper can gain benefit from, or Oscar Garcia joins a La Liga team, so we can send Samper to him with no worries.