IMHO it was a nice, but not worldbreaking gimmick, that was overhyped to sell. Like polygons count, like antialias, like monitor refresh rate... things that of course have their utility but over the years have been the target of marketing.
A group of Hololive Vtubers played it recently, and I noticed how some things appeared good while other worse, I guess it comes with such a long development time.
Who ever thought of this?? "Cheats are copyright infringement" is such a stupid sentence..
Not to forget the base line: if it's not in a competitive environment, what the hell do they care if someone wants to play an easier Elden Ring, or skip the 'grind 100 hours for this materials' part??