I don't get the criticism of DeS being "clunky"

DeS isn't perfect, but I don't think "clunky" is really the right word to describe its flaws. I think its because clunky implies it has incompetent design decisions that are outdated, which I don't think is really the case at all considering many games now still do what DeS does. I think clunky would describe elements like a bad UI, slow animations/combat when it could be faster, awkward controls, etc, things that I don't think anyone would really want and are a thing of the past. Stuff that makes a title grating to play.

I think DeS flaws are in areas like healing items, which I think was done better in DS1 with the estus/bonfires. Not that farmable healing items are bad, since you can always just not pick up any, but the estus system advises you to be more cautious with your health. Stuff like that.

Tl;dr clunky isnt the right word to describe DeS's issues and I think it gives the game an aura of being a product of the time, which I really dont think is the case because I think DeS could be released today and raved over.