>>1599323
It's not just fromsoftware's fault, blaming them alone for the netdecking issue is dumb. Yeah these games can be cryptic but that's half the fun, figuring it out for yourself and experimenting. Most people nowadays don't have interest in doing that though, and that's a problem across a lot of games, not just souls. I think it has something to do with normalfaggots not wanting to fuck around as much and something related to crowd appeal but I can't be sure.
Oddly enough I think you have a point with the soul memory thing, the only games that netdecking/lack of variety wasn't an issue in that I've played lately were Lords of the Fallen (2023) and Salt and Sacrifice. Both had basically nonexistent level matchmaking and scaled invaders up or down instead. They still had their "metas" mind you but just like the Demon Souls, DS1, and DS2 days you barely saw them and instead found a fair bit of variety. Salt and Sacrifice was greatly helped by its covenant system though, with several different types of invaders and co-op summons with varying goals, another comparison you can make to earlier vs later Dark Souls games with covenants being lamer in 3 and then gone in ER. Of course
Remnant 2 serves as a counterexample to the matchmaking thing regarding netdecking, however, since there is literally no matchmaking there, just world scaling with host's numerical power level (derived from weapon upgrades and archetype level). Remant 2 is a strange fucking anomaly in that regard as a whole though, it's pure PVE so you think people would be willing to experiment more, but you barely see any experimentation and you see EVEN LESS of such at lower difficulties, where you think you'd see people using wackier and less optimal builds and use off-meta weapons more.
The netdecking thing with Elden Ring is also strange. As a guy who does a ton more jolly co-op than invasions/duels you see tons of variety in the PvE builds people run, minus the 110-150 range where most PVP builds are, but invaders have notably less than hosts. I think people running specific anti-gank setups could be a reason but I doubt it's the whole story. Duelists are even fucking worse and it gets to a point you feel like you're fighting the same ten or so people over and over due to the lack of variety. PVE builds still have their meta, I'd be a filthy rich if I got paid for every quad-buffing Varre-bullgoat/Varre-raptorcloack bleed build or every "haha comet azur go brr" build I saw after all, but you don't see clearly "I looked this build up on the internet" shit nearly as often.