I probably won't be playing any soulslikes this weekend, but my partner and I are deep in the trenches of Warframe, having traded one free2play addiction for another :D we're currently still clearing the star chart and doing all the main missions.
I've recently built Volt and Wukong and am currently getting Volt to 30 (might use him as a base once I can subsume Warframes). After that, I'll switch to Wukong for some leveling. That's the Warframe I've been saving up materials for for a while, so I'm looking forward to dipping my toes in there. Also earned my first platinum yesterday, so we might end up doing more Void Fissures for some more easy platinum. My partner apparently got a super rare mod on one of our missions that's only got like a 1% drop chance and sells for around 100 plat on the market which is crazy.
So for me, it took several attempts to get into soulslikes. Bloodborne was my first and my first attempt went ok I think. I got to Papa G and then called it a day because I thought I knew where I had to go - a corridor were I'd get ambushed by enemies jumpscare style, which was more or less fabricated lol - but then just stopped playing lol. Same goes for Sekiro which I ended up sticking with after three separate new playthroughs as well as several years between each. Bloodborne got quite hard by the end, but I managed somehow, and yet, Sekiro was a whole different beast. It challenged me in ways I could not have imagined prior. Hence, I'd say that Sekiro definitely was the one game that pushed me to my limits and had me "git gud" somewhat and prepared me for soulslikes to come. Not so much in terms of level design, finding my way around a complicated map, or using a specific build, since all of these are either nonexistent or not huge focuses of the game, but definitely in terms of hard mechanics and micro.
Which one was it for you? How did it make you a better player?
Eyy, a fellow racing sim fan in here! Understandable that soulslikes aren't your thing, but I'll add my perspective to Druid's: while some people do just like the boss fights, many of these games (and especially From Software's ones) are excellent for just having interesting environments to explore as well. To take Elden Ring as an example, some of my absolute favourite moments are just the reveals of areas you've discovered. The original Dark Souls is quite famous for people unlocking shortcuts and going "oh holy shit, this door leads back to the hub area?"
The boss fights definitely are a big part of the joy, I'm not pretending otherwise. But I can at least promise that there's other fun stuff in there (for people that those other bits appeal to, of course, which is still not going to be everyone and probably isn't you)