Edge lords say shit like that mostly, but there is a subset of masochists who hate the QoL and open world of ER for whatever reason. I personally found the level design the worst of the games, except the DLC. It also had a lot of balance issues between builds and weapons (at least in PvE terms) and one of the roughest gatekeeper fights in the series with how rough it was on certain builds (Dancer). It has the best variety of bosses, however, by far. And with certain exceptions, ER's dungeons are kind of cookie cutter and lacking. The undead caverns and jail area in DS3 are, in particular, stand out sections of the game series. But I think the lower parts of the Halig Tree and certainly the sewers stack up to anything from prior souls games, to say nothing of Stormwind Castle.
