My take on Dawson in the late 70's and beyond, once Feud was clicking with America, was that he wanted to do his show like "You Bet Your Life" -- monologues and contestant interaction took priority over gameplay (On Match Game, he loved to do Groucho-esque quips early on before he soured on the set). Yet, heaven forbid if Gene Rayburn ever went off on a tangent at the start of the show, there were many times when Richard Dawson would be the first to chime in to say something like "let's meet the contestants".
However by that time, shows were becoming more rapid-fire Q & A-type shows, thus slower-paced and panel shows were becoming passe, yet Dawson didn't want to be sped-up. He definitely did not like the idea of game wins increasing from 200 to 300 points.