The real answer is that they forefront stagger/i-frame/counter mechanics while backloading difficulty into newer flagships and DLC. Was it that crucial for Yian Kut-ku to have x2.5 Aknosom's damage (when it had x1.5 Qurupeco's damage)? Who remembers 2nd gen Fatalis compared to 5th?

Hyper-flattening. There's old-gen games with super generous damage rank scaling (P3rd), older-gen games with trivial turning staggers and stagger locks (ever use GS against 2nd gen Kushala?), and generally trivially glacial fights (Cephadrome, Lao Shan Lung, Plesioth's comical inability to move).

Despite having hundreds to thousands of hours in 3U+4U+IB+SB, I barely played Wilds because I was just so tired; after Iceborne excelled with endgame fights changing terrain, Sunbreak fell into the parry / i-frame pit, and Wilds embraced the same. v_v
(MH's still leagues better than its peers!)

also going left->right top-> bottom:

all for different positional tactics and threat highlights in a game with minimal terrain options. my version of this was always “the only two places in a maze are inside and outside”- and as alluring as the labyrinth is, many forget everywhere other than inside an lifeless Dungeon.

as the main level dev for DCSS (and DracoOmega’s sapphic partner in crime), I do note decades of dev produced ~76 different layout generators for those ~5550 handmade pieces (much more than the average game sees!) characterized by raw shapes contrasting with and against those hand-made segments,