Whoever here said "the way Souls fans act makes perfect sense when you realize they treat these games as boss fight simulators" was 100% correct. They see exploration and world design as tertiary set dressing to letting you fight 30 Malenias in a row
To me almost every new soulslike falls flat, because it feels like the devs are focusing on the wrong things and that is extremely elaborate, ultra difficulty boss fights. Sure DS1 was sorta difficult, but to me it was more about the exploration. That's where it absolutely shone