Nothing frustrates me more than not being able to pause for no seemingly good reason. I'm playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason. To simulate pausing, I can turn off the xbox and the quick resume feature makes it look like the game was paused when I turn the console back on.
Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.
Obviously all of these games have an online component. Not allowing pausing when this component is activated makes sense. But if I am playing completely online why cannot I pause? In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad? When stuff comes up in the middle crucial moments it frustrates me a lot.
I agree, and even in online games if I am playing in a solo context I should be able to pause. That should be a benefit to playing solo, by design. As an example, if I am playing Warframe in a non-public solo game, I should be able to pause.
The souls games are a pretty egregious example as they are, by and large, solo experiences first. I understand there are online elements, though I do not think I got far enough in any of them to even see those elements. Plenty of people do not engage with those elements, and a benefit to that should be the ability to pause something.
I would argue it should also be a feature in multiplayer games where it makes sense. Starcraft is a great example. The solo campaign obviously allows pausing, but so does online competitive play.
I accept that something like a MMO isn't going to allow you to pause, but there's not much that can be done about that. Unless you are engaged in dedicated group content, you can still usually pretty reasonably afk in those games honestly.
I have a friend whose first question when I suggest a game to him is "can I pause it?". He just became a father and while he still enjoys playing games, he isn't going to play anything that he can not pause when his child suddenly needs attention.