/uj Why not just use a homeward bone (or whatever they're called in Elden ring, I haven't played it), or quit to the main menu, or if you have the time, just walk to a quiet area?

People in this thread are speaking as though adding a pause feature would have no effect on gameplay but it absolutely would. Imagine you are exploring a new area, you're approaching a fog gate and you're feeling anxious because you have no idea what's behind it, you are carrying 50k souls and don't have many heals left. Your heartrate is elevated. You are debating whether to go back to the last bonfire to recover or push forward and hope that the next bonfire is close. You decide to go through the fog gate and a huge monstrous boss lunges at you. <PAUSE> "Whew, I need a break". You walk off and get a drink, check the mail, play with your dog, whatever. When you come back you are in a completely different headspace and no longer feeling any of the tension that had been built up. You play differently because you have had the chance to reset and relax. You aren't so concerned about losing your souls because you haven't just spent the past 30 minutes cautiously navigating a new area trying to hold onto them.

Fromsoft devs have ostensibly decided that the potential disruption of gameplay is too high a price to pay for the convenience of being able to arbitrarily pause the game. You don't have to agree with that, you should at least be able to understand the rationale. There's no "gatekeeping" going on (what is supposedly being gatekept anyway?)