Also to add a few more things I like,
-armor gives you stat bonuses
-no need for blood echoes to upgrade weapons, just the materials, so if you amassed a shard collection but died somehow, you can go and upgrade anyway before returning to Yharnam
-no durability system which felt mostly just pointless (durability systems usually do except in perhaps survival-based games), except for poking fun with the Tonitrus, most fragile weapon in BB, getting bent out of shape from overuse.