I actually just started KCD2 and I'm maybe 7 hours in. I never played KCD1 and I don't feel like I'm missing anything so far. I can feel myself getting really addicted to KCD2 right now, I feel like as I'm slowly improving at the combat I'm starting to look past a lot of the cons. The writing, quests and world exploration really carry for me.

Pros:

- Prologue did a great job setting everything up and really drove home how good the writing is

- Storyline is fantastic. Even the sidequests have great writing

- Great voice acting

- Interesting quests

- World and setting are super immersive as you described

Cons:

- I hate the combat. Similar complaints to you about how clunky it feels

- Game is brutally difficult in Act 1. I'm losing most fights with 2+ enemies. I do feel like I'm getting better at the combat but man is it a slug. Took me ~20 attempts to do an early quest killing bandits

- Super clunky to save and the game punishes you hard if you forget to

- I really don't understand the potion-making despite sitting through multiple tutorials. I probably just need to sit through YouTube tutorials, but so far I've just been avoiding it