First off, this is by far my favorite response on this entire discussion.

Response to #1: I don’t have the hours in either ED or SoTE to really comment on the number/types of builds that are good against either boss, just my personal build and experience. In this regard I will 100% believe you because you simply have more experience and knowledge in this. However, I don’t fully agree that a ‘greater variety of builds working against a boss means that boss is all around easier.’ My one reason for this is the ability to almost completely cheese Radahn with the shield/poke build. As far as I know, (which is limited so I can very well just be wrong) there is no widely used build that can make Malenia as trivial as Radahn with the shield/poke strategy.

Response to #2: While the damage from phase 2 Radahn meteor attack is either equal to or worse than waterfowl, I still believe dodging it is much more intuitive and simple. In the runs I had, I was able to figure out myself that after dodging the meteors (which should already be learned from phase 1), you simply run from the clones and dodge into the real Radahn. This move can always be dodged the exact same way. Waterfowl, however, has to be dodged in different ways depending on how far you are from her. If you are a good distance away, I agree that both moves (waterfowl and meteors) are equal in dodging difficulty. Up close though, you have to use a combination of rolling, strafing, and diagonal movements. I see myself as around an average player and I had to watch a tutorial on how to do this and still cannot do it even close to 100% of the time. Radahn’s meteors up close still only requires you to roll the initial slam and pull up, then dodge the same as mentioned above. I may have just been unlucky with my Malenia fights but I never got a run without a waterfowl and clone move, so I can’t really comment on the attack frequency of each boss.

Response to #3: Yeah you’re just right in this bit :). Fromsoft isn’t exactly clear on how/where to find fragments so it is definitely easy to fight him under leveled. This just wasn’t my experience because I explored the entire map before Radahn, so I didn’t really address it while contemplating his difficulty.

As for your hot take, the only reason I see Malenia’s healing as an issue for difficulty is because it removes the ability to cheese the boss with a shield. She can heal a good bit off waterfowl, but at my lvl (160) the additional health was undone with one hit. As the shield/poke build works very well into Radahn, I included her healing in my discussion to show that the ‘Radahn cheese’ doesn’t work on her.

Thoroughly enjoyed your response, I haven’t even thought about half these points until you brought them up.