You said stats are independent of weapons, that's the part I was responding to there. Don't switch it around. And scaling is on the weapons, and there are 100+ weapons in DS1(not even including shields), even more in the other games, so don't you think as a new player gets further and has 50 weapons they're probably likely to spend time sifting through them to try things and see what's best, etc etc? Then you've got 30 some rings(in DS1, lots more in the others), at least as many armor pieces as weapons if not more, and lots of different consumables, and there's a good chance most people will be switching various things out for various situations.

You don't technically "need" to do a lot, though still some, but I can't imagine the majority of new players(or vets... I'm regularly spending time in the menus) not spending a good deal of time in there sifting through things, trying things, and figuring out the tons of items you accumulate. No, it's not Path of Exile or Borderlands, doesn't mean you're still not spending a lot of time in there.