3. The game sold a ton setting new sales benchmark for series.
This is a pretty weak argument for its quality - the game has been up for preorder for nearly a decade and has been marketed off and on for almost that long. It also released on multiple platforms, had a supplementary movie that went to theaters, a huge release date announcement event - for it to sell less after a decade of marketing would have been utterly embarassing.
Imagine if Valve had Half-Life 3 up for preorder ten years ago and periodically marketed it - how many units they'd sell regardless of quality. It'd almost be unfair to compare it to any other game with a normal release schedule.
They did explain it though. It was in words and not cutscenes. Just like how souls fans like their stuff.
...hold me back!