I've had a conversation about this before and it came down to the player thinking corpse runs, checkpoints, and a dark vibe were new traits that Demon's Souls invented. When I played that Demon's Souls back in 2009, it was very reminiscent of older games and was more old-school than new which was refreshing in the PS3 era. Hollow Knight is a great title of the Metroid genre, which we name after the first game of its kind. Souls wasnt. To call something a souls-like would be like calling Metroid a Hollow Knight-like.

At the end of the day, referring to so many different games in these terms just places some unfair expectations that can only ensure someone will be dissapointed. Deathloop had so many assumptions made about it that many couldnt enjoy it for what it was.