Apart from the forced meme of "Levels = RPG", i've always felt that roleplay games are ones that allow you to... roleplay?
By that logic, cRPG is at least a partial roleplay game, since you got a vast amount of different gear to allow you to tweak out your char to some sort of persistent role. A viking warrior, a templar knight, a mamluk rider, an english longbowman or maybe a japanese samurai archer, lost in medieval europe, forced to replace parts of his armour with ill-fitting western gear?
Which is why i ever despise all the minmaxers with khuyaks and what-have-you