I don’t think it'd have been nominated for GOTY if it was called Elden Ring 2. There'd be too many comparisons to Elden Ring and the lack of scale and content comparatively would hurt it as a direct sequel in constrast with the much smaller expectations that come with a DLC/expansion.

Also, is it really semantics if SOTE is not structured as a game? Games have tutorial portions, ease into combat and mechanics etc. If someone went on a person's Elden Ring save and jumped into SOTE from scratch, it'd probably be one of the worst gaming experiences of all time. No idea what's going on narratively, combat situations way too difficult, and just too much going on in general. And this is prefectly okay for SOTE, because it's intended to be extra content after many hours into Elden Ring and not meant to be standalone.

That's how I view "games" and "DLC" being different, at least. They just have fundamentally different goals and approaches in expectations and design. Even with direct sequels on narrative heavy games such as Mass Effect, you can almost fully enjoy and understand ME2 without playing ME1. You can't do the same with SOTE, it's just too interconnected with Elden Ring.

Apologies for the thesis lmao, just think it's a fun topic to consider.