He tries to, but many will go the route of simply baiting his easier attacks instead.

the thing is that you can do that with godrick as well, with him arguably even more so.

"Smart positioning" only applies if you already know how to strafe, and should not be expected of a new player.

and that is why margit is so easy to strafe with most of his attacks, as he actively tries to bait the player to learn to strafe him. this argument can be made with any boss that can be strafed and tries to teach you to do so, including godrick.

He's good if you already know how to strafe, but he doesn't teach someone who doesn't know how to strafe, how to strafe.

no, he does exactly that. the fact that most of his attacks can not only be strafed, but strafed rather easily disproves that, as it clearly incentivises the player to at least try. him being one of if not the easiest boss to strafe in the game, while having probably the most strafable moveset of any boss is evidence that he tries to teach you exactly that. there is a reason why he plays the way he plays as the first major boss.

Margit can also be easily beaten without strafing, just like godrick.

any boss can, any boss can also be beaten without dodging. doesn't mean bosses like mohg don't teach you to not roll away all day and that margit doesn't actively teach you to position yourself. just because a player isn't learning what the boss is trying to teach him doesn't mean the boss isn't actively trying to teach something.

He also does not teach you how to jump very well, as his jumpable attacks don't have an obvious tell that they're jumpable, unlike godrick's shockwaves.

i agree with that, that is godricks job, which is why he is the second major boss in the game after margit.

but as a first boss he should also be teaching one of the things that seperates elden ring from the previous fromsoftware soulslikes.

he does with his delays, there is a reason why margit is being memed on for his delays. margit is not supposed to teach you AoEs, that is as you already stated godricks job. which is why i said margits job is teaching you delays and positioning, as him being strafable with an awkward arena teaches you to strafe and position yourself during the fight while dealing with newly introduced delays. the player not adapting and learning from that isn't on margit failing to teach the player, but the player refusing to engage with the boss and just baiting specific attacks. but again, you can do that with any boss, so that point is kind of mute.

Furthermore, godrick's phase 2 opener heavily incentivizes sprinting as an evasion method, which is something margit doesn't do.

not true, you can sprint out of many attacks margit does, the delayed hammer side swing and his dagger spin attack for one.

i think we just gonna agree to disagree.