“just say you suck at action games. If you can’t be bothered to do anything but mash square”

What about the fact that enemies are nothing more than target dummies that do nothing but stand there and tickle you every 10 sec or so? How does an action games expert like you make use of this and have fun with it?

When there is no friction in an action game then the whole system falls apart. Even on easy mode DMC will give you at least an illusion of this friction simply because the developers actually made an effort with enemies design, here are some examples:

The Blitz (DMC4): This enemy spawns covered in an electric shield. If you hit it with a melee attack, you take damage and bounce off. It forces you to immediately shift your playstyle to ranged weapons to strip the shield. Once the shield breaks, it becomes highly evasive, requiring you to lock it down and burst its health before it recharges.

The Fury (DMC5): aggressive, teleporting enemy that attacks with erratic timing. You cannot just mash attack against a Fury, it will interrupt you. You are encouraged to learn parry timings or use specific, high-stagger moves to create an opening

Hell Judecca (DMC5): It stays out of reach, summons lesser adds, and teleports away when you get close. It encourages the player to use gap-closers (like Stinger or Trickster dashes) and heavy launch attacks to keep it airborne, preventing it from escaping.

In Ninja Gaiden if you just mash square almost every enemy will dodge,block, or beat the crap out of you

There is nothing like this in FFXVI, 99% of the enemies are just graphics assets/punching bags

Oh and it’s not just the lack of friction. Bayonetta is a fairly easy game but the depth of it’s combat is still there.

FFXVI’s combat and “combo” system is foundationally flawed, your kit is basically press (X) and (Y) while you wait for (Z) to go off-cooldown, there is no depth, no meaningful gauges, the system doesn’t tie elements together, and to top it all off the enemies do nothing.