I decided to give Elden Ring another chance since I figured the stuttering issues on PC were probably fixed by now with one of the patches. I was right and have had a considerably smoother experience than I did in February. 

While I still have my misgivings about some of the boss design (it often feels like the bosses are playing Sekiro while I'm stuck in Dark Souls with their endless attack chains and flashy bullshit) but I am having a much better time than I did at launch both because of the smoother, non choppy gameplay and because I was willing to work with more of the systems in place. I stopped just trying to brute force and frustrate myself and start using weapon skills and playing around with things and found a playstyle that I like. I think the reused enemies and repeated dungeon designs take away from the game but I justify that simply by realizing that you're not really expected to just find every single side cave and catacomb. 

I like it more but it's still not my favorite FromSoft Souls-like. That is still Bloodborne.