Running or reloading every fight until you get one that's actually manageable ISN'T FUN. It's not really all too upsetting it's just NOT FUN. Every fight shouldn't require you to retreat, refresh, or trudge through it to squeeze out a win. You also shouldn't have to min-max a standard fight either. Almost every single average player is being pushed away from the game because you NEED to min-max fights just to win.
I mean, how am I supposed to deal with 3 Tipsy Ghosts (all with a 35% chance to dodge physical attacks) at the same time? It's doable, sure, but it's just NOT FUN TO DO. That fight requires constantly taunting with Vix and Sam, draining them as close as you can get to level 1 with Red, and then either killing all 3 at the same time or killing 2 of them 3 times so they can't be revived anymore. Items make that SIGNIFICANTLY easier to deal with but in order to get them, you gotta win fights and grind for money, then gamble on lootboxes for one of the very few items that actually help you.
It's just not a good gameplay loop imo. It's an infinite uphill battle where the enemies constantly have the advantage over you. Even if YOU somehow gain the advantage they just take it back through some random bullshit. You can and will eventually win the war of attrition but dear god is it painful, not fun, and just straight up bad design. There's very few fights that actually FEEL like fair fights, the rest are just you punching a brick wall until your hands shatter, waiting months for them to heal, returning to punch the wall again, and it EVENTUALLY breaking down after years of punching the same wall. Or (after punching a few walls down) walking into Home-Depot, buying a random toolbox, and HOPING it comes with a sledgehammer in it.
If you enjoy min-maxing every single fight. Making sure that EVERY SINGLE action is used to the BEST of its ability then sure, have fun. But the majority of people don't. Especially if it's quite literally fight #3 that requires min-maxing. You're supposed to be slowly lead INTO that. Library of Ruina for instance starts getting complicated as all hell past Urban Plague and it SLOWLY leads you into upgrading and perfecting your decks before that point. Every fight in that game gives you MORE resources and tools at your disposal. Meanwhile this game actively gives them to the ENEMIES instead and just hopes you can figure out how to deal with it.
The dev's recent response makes it even worse. A meme that can basically be summed up as "git good," ONE actual balance change (big rat spawnrate), 3 tutorial prompts, and then text pretty much saying "Instead of voicing your concerns on Itchio (AKA a public space), go to the Discord, that I own, full of people who will (probably) vehemently defend me, so I can (maybe) kick you out if I don't like what you say." I've probably taken too many embellishments with this paragraph so far but that's just how it reads to me. That post really drove it home, it wasn't the dev saying something along the lines of "yeah, ok sure, I GUESS I can add some stuff to make it easier for you all." Instead he basically said to just deal with it. He can add/change things to make the game easier without ruining the overall experience. Hell it doesn't even need to be forced on you, just make it all optional. Summons were optional in Elden Ring. The Scadutree Fragments are technically optional too in its DLC. They are there to make the game easier for those that want to use them. They don't compromise the vision of the game at all, they're just there for players to use if they want to.
Meanwhile the closest you get in this game is Gaze, where it feels like you'll get screwed over and locked into a bad ending for using its mechanics to get stronger. That's not the same as the ones in Elden Ring. There should be an opposite to Gaze where you get substantially weaker buffs for sparing enemies instead. Hizi technically works for that but she requires so much XP for any meaningful benefits and half of them are just random chances anyways whereas Gaze's buffs are actual flat stat increases. Significantly more reliable than Hizi's as they don't trigger off of random chances.