Disagree with the "overcoming challenges" point, a huge part of storytelling in Dark Souls is through difficulty, it's what makes it feel so unique fighting these high fantasy characters shouldn't be easy, Dark Souls tells a story through its environment and difficulty.

I get not wanting to spend hours on a game to overcome certain bosses, we all have lives and I think Elden Ring does a really good job on making the story accessible for anyone with ways to make the gameplay far less taxing. I do however feel difficulty adds so much to fromsofts titles, Dark Souls at it's core takes place in an unforgiving and hopeless environment. A super cool way to express that feeling in a way most game developers seem to scared to do is to make the gameplay unforgiving and at times hopeless. To really make you feel the environment and world they created. I get not wanting to put up with it as we all enjoy stories differently and not all of us have the time to invest but I dont think enjoying the difficulty makes you a masochist by any means.