They should have removed Malenia's life steal and made her the final boss

Does anyone else feel this way?

I don't feel like there's much of a lore implication since we don't really connect with Radagon at all during the campaign, nobody knows what the hell the Elden Beast is supposed to be, and at least Malenia has an NPC questline devoted to her with Millicent.

In terms of actual boss mechanics, we all know how much of an embarrassment Elden Beast is as the final boss of a souls game, I don't need to go into that, but Radagon is pretty awful too. I know people like this fight but I don't know why. He looks cool and has sick music but that's about it. To me he seems to embody too many of the boss design flaws in this game. Too much reliance on attack delays, excessive stun lock, AOE spam which is also a visual assault with all the flashing, inability to play a midrange game, and obvious input reading on heals. But at least he's not a camera boss.

Malenia I think is just a way better boss. Yes, she's hard as shit, but at least she can be staggered, is susceptible to bleed, doesn't have as bad of a healing input read as Radagon. Yes, she has a healing input read, but in phase 2 it can actually help you because it's the big swooping attack followed by a straight thrust which is pretty easy to deal with and actually provides a damage window.

Waterfowl dance is awful but it can be learned, and honestly I think what makes her completely unfair is the life steal, and also that it happens when you block as well so it invalidates shield users. Remove that, and she's the best boss in the game, not even close.

I wish she wasn't a hidden boss and was the final challenge instead of the stinker we got.