There's space on steam for more than one game to be made at a time, just a case of different developers choosing to either make, or not make those games, and for you to buy them. We can all have preferences of what we like and vote with our wallets on what it is we want. If the game's combat isn't for you, well Dark And Darker Gold, maybe the game just isn't for you. Just like a M&B Tarkov dungeon crawler wouldn't be for me.

Be already a dumpster fire

You can strike vertically or vertically. Parry horizontal and parry vertical. If its a pointy strike, you just side step.

That alone would already make the combat more interesting.

What you're really describing here is mount and blade's combat system, really. Although it could be fun in it's own right, it's not necessarily objectively "better".

I'm 30 years old. My reflexes aren't what they used to be when I was 16, and I don't have the time to invest into a competitive game to be.. well, truly competitive, if the system is particularly complex, or skill and reaction based. So for me the relatively simple mechanics of dark and darker (that can still be mastered to do some insane things) remove what would otherwise be significant barrier to entry.

A much more complex combat system where sheer reaction speed and built up skill would mean I would just.. die 90%+ of the time? Me, and a lot of players like me out there simply won't touch that, especially not when I lose all my progress every single time I die Dark And Darker Gold for sale.