Not sure what's hard to believe, Dark Souls 3 being a bland greatest hits album and cheap fan service as an answer for Dark Souls 2 being "too different" is quite common criticism, it's not even controversial. Ofc you can like it despite of it, but it's hard to deny if you play all the games, not because of some form of gatekeeping "you need to play all the games or you're not a fan", but because you will see the paterns, you will know the Storm Ruler, you will recognize the not-Latria Irithyll Dungeon, another swamp, the not-Duke Grande Archives, familiar NPCs, the Bloodborne wannabe combat and art direction, you get the idea.