I praise DS2 for going in a slightly different direction than "DS1 cycle forever, nothing matters".
Also, somehow, Elden Ring had worse balance and bosses than DS2.
I always hated the cycles thing. It was just a way to explain more sequels and it cheapens the endings of dark souls 1. As much as I like the dark souls sequels it would have made much more sense to leave it at 1 tbh.