The whole Dune series was to be a sweeping epic. I mean, not only was it telling the story of a group of characters that were the products of generations upon generations of selective breeding & "natural" genetic manipulation, but the series itself spanned millenia.

So yeah, the SyFy versions maybe stayed more true to the storyline, but David Lynch's version at least had a more epic feel to it (no matter what turns it took from the novels).