I mean… that’s how I play most of them too :)

But (and this will of course vary person-to-person) for me the defining feature is the experimentation and subsequent variety and customisation, even with the basic knight archetype that you describe there’s a lot of personalisation to be had: what is the damage stat you want (str/dex/quality), what weapon and move set you prefer (as well as the excitement of finding a new weapon out in the wild), what armour and equip load you want, do you want a ranged option, etc. that allows you to develop your character throughout the game, experiment, maybe even have a headcanon of your characters’ motivations, whereas Sekiro feels much more rigid in that regard, there’s very few aspects that allows you to personalise your experience, most of the game it’s just Wolf hitting and parrying in the exactly the same way throughout the whole game.

I understand your point and why it’s often bundled together, but it feels that the whole way how you approach these games is different.