To me, Chained Echoes is a bunch of good parts that come together to make a great game. Nothing is perfect, but I never felt like any one part let me down (although I could probably be convinced that the gem system, or whatever it was, is very weak).
I’m actually the opposite of you where I had to bump the difficulty up, then the combat felt engaging to me and I really enjoyed it.
I’m excited because of Starfield. It was still an enjoyable game to me.
If they can keep the combat and stories, but condense the world and add that sense of exploration from their older games, I would be happy.