From what I hear, the gameplay was reconfigured to push combat heavily, despite the first game establishing that's a very bad idea even if you technically could, and it detracts from everything people liked about the actual game sections of the series.

The writing somehow got more Kojima-y with all sorts of insanity, more anime/vtubers, and a nightmare gay tentacle makeout scene. Enough that its extremely offputting compared to the first game.

Even if you are being charitable with "if you ignore X and Y its a fun game" like I could with DS1 (one of my favorite chill and don't think games to play), it basically didn't land in the slightest (not helping by being PS5 exclusive after DS1 got much of its success on PC) and had no reason to be nominated for anything but graphical awards. Its only up there because Geoff is a literal character in universe because Kojima is his friend.