>>718931791
>the issue mostly boils down to people not liking a game
No.
Just like you said, in HK your character comes to full stop after holding or releasing A/D, but also after doing the downwards strike to jump on top of enemy, I'm pretty sure the momentum is fake and completely binary up/down movement, and also after dashing you don't keep momentum. Tons of other "stiff" things like this too, it's been a long time since I played it.

And with this sort of "stiff" movement, traversal becomes BORING because it requires you to not pay attention or 'feel' your character properly. In a game where you have to backtrack a ton, where you constantly jump on platforms and enemies, you don't want basic movement to require no effort like this. Heck, you shouldn't want that in a platformer game in general, there's bullet hell/shoot 'em up games better suited for this sort of movement and skill.

And this stiff movement makes the game a lot easier. To get the same level of difficulty of less precise movement, you have to fucking spam and clutter the entire screen with saws and spikes and projectiles AND bosses will have to rely on surprise gimmicks, memorization, or straight up pseudo-bullet hell more (there are games that properly commit to it which is fine, like Rabi-Ribi, TEVI, IWBTGs etc.)
Look at pic related. Looks simple and clean You can parse it in seconds. And because the movement is NOT stiff, a solid difficulty is still maintained by default.
I was literally yawning and falling asleep a lot of time when backtracking in Hollow Knight. It's unironically game for netflix watchers who can't do a forward roll IRL. I'm sorry anon.