>>719024557
Don't get angry i'm going to question your post.
You over estimate how much competency DS1 demanded from you. It wasn't that much more at all. Did you play it recently or back then? When the experience was new. Do you remember DS1 correctly without time embellishing the memory?
There are more factors to take into account if you want to gauge the difficulty levels of the traversal.
If Sam is loaded up it's already not the same gameplay than if he carries a few pieces of cargo. In DS2 there are more footpaths cutting through cliffs in general so that's easier, the terrain is also flatter in many areas. Though the flatness can also result from online players stomping the grounds.
In DS2 the mountains are unarguably more steep and more difficult to traverse. The map is also larger.
My opinion is that the conveniences that DS2 added didn't significantly alter the harshness of the gameplay because the harshness was near zero already.