Dark Souls - Ultimate Game of All Time?

Pardon the provocative title - thought it'd catch some attention :D

As part of the 2021 Golden Joystick Awards, there was contest on which game is the Ultimate Game of All Time. This is the lost of contenders:

The game that came out of ahead before any of these was Dark Souls. In response to the award, Miyazaki talked about how the team at FromSoftware has grown since Dark Souls' creation. He said:

"At that time, the staff who joined From Software as a newcomer and started [their] career as game creators from Dark Souls are now growing and becoming the core of the latest work, Elden Ring. In that sense as well, this time, I was deeply moved by the award."

Dark Souls is a game that has been talked about a lot since its debut, will likely be talked about in ten years and in ten years after that - it's a timeless game. It's the origin of the entire genre and laid the groundwork for the core pillars of these game. It's been praised for its level design, art direction, difficulty, environmental storytelling etc.

I do respect the legacy of the game and the long-lasting impact it had on the genre and on gaming as a whole, but for me personally, there are other contemporaries that I enjoy more: be it for more polished combat, visuals, or story.

What do you think? Is Dark Souls deserving of being called the Ultimate Game of All Time compared to the other contenders? I feel like basically any of the nominees could have won the award and I would not have been surprised. Does the game still hold up to you even compared to the swathes of other games to choose from? Why do you keep coming back to Dark Souls - if you even do?

Ninja Edit: had a slightly differently structured post planned about this, but I just came back from the gym and barely got this post together, and remember only half of what I initially wanted to discuss - sorry :D ✨💜