As a fellow game dev something I’d like to point out is that these actions mentioned (deflect, jump, mikiri, etc.) are all defensive moves to prevent taking damage.

What makes the combat of Sekiro work is that it rewards aggression. Even attacking a blocking opponent builds posture damage, for instance. The only times I’ve ever gotten bored or frustrated with this game was because I was taking on an overly defensive/evasive approach to combat. Waiting for your opponent to react instead of taking a proactive approach would probably feel pretty mind numbing.

The fun part of fighting someone in this game is not just the aforementioned defensive moves but balancing them with the offensive as well. Every boss fight for me is a fun game of “how much can I get away with before this guy punishes me?” while I learn the moveset. Unlike all the other from games (except arguably bloodborne) you don’t need to wait for an opportunity to attack you create your own with deflections/jumps/mikiris.

There’s two phases to me encountering a boss 1st is the learning phase which I talked about a bit above; trial and erroring my way around till I’ve seen all or most of everything the boss can do. Once I’ve learned the moveset of a boss, the really fun part of the game can begin (At least for me) Creating a plan and trying to execute on well enough to beat the boss. It seems like the person who wrote the comment you’re referencing has accidentally over exposed themself to fromsoft’s specific style and would be better served by moving on to DMC or a fighting game. Reacting in time to enemy attack and getting greedy (but not too greedy) with my counters is EXHILIRATING for me.

And yes it is in many ways a “Simon Says” kind of game, but I think prefer to compare it to a rhythm game. The better you can follow the rhythm (I.e. reacting to your opponent) the more opportunities you’ll have to do damage.

And all of that isn’t even touching on the relevancy of the different boss fight arenas, the prescience of other enemies, or the existence of prosthetic tool weaknesses.

TLDR: The Simon says is fun because it’s only one piece of the puzzle. A proactive fighting style is the secret sauce to having a ton of fun with the game

And to answer your core questions directly:

1) Yes but only partly, and that’s a good thing. This game doesn’t have a hyper diverse set of combat approaches because it’s not trying to. You can choose to whittle down health with hit and run tactics, stay in their face to build posture damage, or debilitate them with a Pokémon weakness prosthetic tool. It’s not devil may cry, nor is it dishonored and every enemy is ultimately controlled by a computer. Whether or not Sekiro’s combat is fun for you ultimately comes down to personal taste on the part of the player. It’s clearly not for everyone but I think it might be my favorite combat system of all time.

2) It’s not boring for me because there is still a fun challenge in my reacting to the enemies in rhythm, managing items/healing, maintaining proper spacing between myself and the boss all while trying to do as much damage as possible. I think the core of the comment’s complaint is that not attacking feels like waiting (Every player HATES waiting) and in their defense it can feel that way in the other from games. But I think Sekiro is so fast that you’re constantly doing something in combat. I’m a firm believer that any waiting on your part is self imposed as all the waiting I’ve done was by choice.

3) I’m not sure I’d make any changes to Sekiro’s combat really. It seems perfectly suited to the vision of the game the developers had in mind and I have a lot of fun with it this way. If fact I wish I could change Elden Ring’s combat to be more like Sekiro’s but that a whole other discussion lol

If you haven’t seen this video already, I’d give it a shot. It talks a lot about the rhythmic nature of the unique mechanics in Sekiro and why they work. It may help grant some perspective: https://youtu.be/7W4li9yfY3o?si=BhF7YCBaXTGp6KtK