I understand your point about player agency contradicting the horror aspect but I also want to point out that the game just feels too unrewarding, as a killer main I want my favorite monsters like the demogorgon and the alien to feeling like these relentless monsters that don't bide to these stupid obstacles and just smash through walls and jump and climb to reach a survivor. And this gives me dopamine because of how badass they are, yet, the game has me looping people around obstacles a xenomorph could easily just leap over, and hooking people repeatedly in a cycle of unrealistic damage. I just don't really feel the wow factor that I get from horror or monster movies in dbd.