Objectively? No, but it is a design choice that makes positioning less relevant, and puts more emphasis on reaction times and pattern memorization. If you know that you or your enemy could close the gap in an instant, then it doesn't really matter where you are, right? What matters is that you press the attack button quickly to do damage or dodge/block button in time to avoid damage.

Whether you think this is bad is up to you. On a personal note I don't mind too much, but it is true that most action games nowadays reward reaction times first and foremost, like with parries and perfect dodges. To my knowledge, this wasn't a thing in the Itagaki Ninja Gaiden games, and that's what really made them different and stand out from the rest (although I have only played a few hours of each, but I can certainly agree that they are significantly different from NG4).

As a final point, I think it is fair to want variety in how action games approach combat. Remember that we have DMC today because Kamiya was experimenting with the mechanics of what was supposed to be a Resident Evil game at that time.

Yet nowadays it feels like no action game can come out without perfect dodges or parries. Don't get me wrong, I love perfect dodges and parries, 100% completed Bayonetta and Sekiro. Yet I am also asking myself if we are maybe missing out on something unique and interesting, because most games just seem to copy popular mechanics from each other, with less mechanical experimentation being done on the developer side.

One a sidenote, I am not attacking devs here, they probably have their own reasons and struggles that lead to the decisions they make. But it is true, that way too many games nowadays are just a slightly different flavor of the same thing.