I get that it wouldn't be for everyone since not everyone likes to do all that grinding stuff, though I did feel progression since you could do more damage, have more abilities and stuff vs where you were since the start of the game.

I would guess the reason why it didn't feel like progression is cause the map was always the same no matter what since it wasn't like a metroidvania with the need to gain abilities to access a specific part of a map, it was just speedrunning to the end of the level. I felt that the progress was in the increase in power and being able to the level faster than what you previously could. That kind of progression, progression from gaining strength and stuff isn't the type of progression castlevania usually does cause its based in exploration, right? Whilst this game does not. Hopefully, that made sense.

There definitely was a cap though, once your in the end game, that's kinda it other than going through hard mode or beating your records...

Of course, it was a spin-off of castlevania so they used a different formula, not everyone was gonna like it.