This is why I don’t condemn shield use because you still need to be cognizant of your stamina usage. Just because you blocked an attack, that attack you blocked took a chunk of stamina and also exposed the player to further vulnerability if they are attacked in succession. Movement and timing are as vitally important when using a shield in the same skillset of two handing or using no shield.
Parrying although requires correct timing to pull off which puts some vulnerability on the player because if a parry is timed wrong you can get hit but you also lose stamina on the hit, the timing is generally forgiving in all souls games and the only focus is really on understanding attack windows and nothing more. With that successful parry you trivialize the game by effectively taking advantage of the parry’s advantage which is being able to riposte the enemy for a large chunk of their health. Rinse and repeat until they are dead.
Parrying is a skill lacking technique which trivializes the games
In DS1 parrying is a joke and pretty much how you put it in your post. In DS2 and DS3 the delay between your input and the active parry frames makes it so it can't really be used reactively except against very slow attacks (like the Pursuer's dash attack). You have to proactively try and predict your opponents attacks to parry them. In Elden Ring I'm not sure since I've only learned to parry the dragon knights or whatever they are called.