Okay?Oh yeah, you just reminded me of another thing I don't like about the game: The fact that slashing is mostly restricted to where the camera is pointing.
This still doesn't change the fact that this is how the game is played. You don't like it but that's how they wanted it to work. You use the analog stick all the time if you are playing correctly.
Explain to me then, what is there to dig deep into?
I used all the combos the game gave me and I still never felt I needed to do anything differently against any enemy. I used different moves for variety sake and to prevent repetition but it was in no way "deep".
I replayed the whole series countless times on many different difficulites and it always come down to this: Button mashing with the basic combos with the Blades can get you through the whole game without any issue.
I was never forced to change my strategy compared to GOW4 on hard.