Most of his games really give off the impression of being made by a lazy designer.
I recognize your point, but I think lazy isn't really the term one should use for a person who single handedly churns out full featured RPGs. If he were lazy, he'd not make 'em games at all.
Since he DOES make the games, and since he's but a single guy, he's got to be efficient with his time if he ever wants to actually ship the games. So he reuses stuff whenever possible. Since he is still in business after 22 years of doing this, and since he managed to create a game each year on average, things seem to be working out for him this way, I guess.
Now, I'm not a Vogel apologist by any stretch of imagination - in fact I'd say none of his newer games are REALLY worth buying. Maybe looking at one Geneforge game is in order (he usually has demos which allow players to get a good glimpse), and you can buy it if you really like it ... beyond that I felt all Geneforge games felt kinda similar.
His only series I considered to be pretty great were the Exile games in all their top-down 2D glory.
Still, calling hiim a lazy designer makes my no-fair sense tingle a bit.