I played all of the originals on PS2/PS3 on the hardest difficulty as well as 2018.

Couldn't agree with you less. The old games were great but they ran their course. They were mainly button mashers with QTE's added as finshers. On the hardest difficulty, they required you to parry everything before button mashing. They were super fun and epic but they ran their course.

The combat system introduced in 2018 was way more innovative and the challenge at GMGOW difficulty was way more fulfilling. Ragnarok improves on that combat system in every way. I've played through every Souls game and Sekiro multiple times. I do SL1 runs and can beat DS3 in under 2 hours from character creation to finish without skips. Ragnarok's combat system is insanely more involved than roll, roll swing, roll, roll, swing.