Started the game myself this month after buying it on december, was thinking of doing my own LTTP thread.
Im up to the Witch of Hemwick right now.
My absolutely fave part of this game that people rarely bring up is the level design/structure, like OP mentions the short cuts are amazing, they reward exploration and, in a game where save points are too far apart, it gives you sense of progression. Specially in the first Area where you spend a lot of time while you learn the game, you feel stuck because you're not finding new save points, but if you explore the shortcuts let you skip huge portions of the area and make reaching the first two bosses (Cleric Beast, Father Gascione) from the save point extremely quick. Exploring is really rewarding. Also, it's so easy to miss up things, i was talking about the game with a buddy and he mentioned you can get a music box to make Gascione easier, i looked everywhere and never found it, so i just said "fuck it" and killed the boss on my own only to much later find the box while revisiting the area to farm echos and items.
Another thing is, people blow up the "lol, soulsborne games are unfairly hard git gud" aura to the games, but playing them they feel sooo...like, if you die you don't feel cheated, you feel like YOU FUCKED UP, and even when you get the mechanics and areas become easy (like the mob at the burning thing mentioned in the OP), the game has no problem reminding you that even the slightest mistake will cause even the easiest enemies to kill you, and you will just feel shame, because you're supposed to know better. The Shovel Knight styled death mechanics of getting back your money also gives you a pretty good motivation to get better every time you die, because you want to enact revenge on what killed you and get your money back.