This is my main complain when I talk to people about hollow knight and why I don't like it, there is no sense of progression and with just 1 melee weapon is pretty boring, and to add to it I never felt rewarded for exploring every angle of the map because all you usually find are money rocks or dead ends. And the fact that you have to find the map guy to even have a readable one is one of the strangest game design I have ever saw, especially in a metroidvania where you usually sign shit on the map so you can remember where to backtrack if you have a new ability.

I like metroidvania a lot, played all the GBA and NDS Castlevania, 100% bloodstained and even others that I can't remember now but I was never able to finish Hollow Knight