The Issue of Summons

This basically is just me wanting to know the real reason why there’s such a divide between using and not using summons. From the perspective of someone who’s never played a souls game besides this one, the summons help me out and actively help me enjoy the game. I’ve seen many, many comments where using them is actively discouraged and I’m not so sure why that’s the case.

The way I see it, the new players that need help in the game and either don’t have anyone to play with or don’t want their professional souls player friend to be weighed down by them potentially or even an experienced souls player who just wants to use a mechanic that hasn’t been in any other games, it’s not truly a big issue to do so. While it can be used as a crutch in many cases, there’s still a certain way everyone wants to play the game. There’s people who would go from Margit to Melania with only fists and while I’d like to say how absurd that is it’s ultimately their choice.

I say all that to ask for the Reddit’s perspective on it. Why do you use summons or why don’t you? Why do you feel they’re a negative or positive addition to the game? Why would you prefer people don’t use them or would you advocate for people to give it a try?