I ran into the same issue with showing poise in my own game before taking it out completely recently so I definitely get the struggle.
The responsiveness thing might just be from watching the character still face the enemy when I start holding the run button and holding away, making me want to mash jump to get further away before seeing my character face the direction I want then to run. There was a little jerkiness to seeing that happen with the camera and player still being near the boss after trying to escape.