I get what you mean about MMO's, but I wouldn't use the term "assembly line" - rather I would say they are highly choreographed events. Speaking as a former Vanilla WoW Choreographer (Raid Leader) I can attest to the difficulty in getting 40 people to all do the correct thing - depending on roles - for 2-10 minutes.
There is a sense of fun and accomplishment in that kind of gaming, but I would say Souls games are the opposite of that.
Elden Ring in particular was so good that it really set a new standard for expectations in regards to combat in games. I used to compare Skyrim's lackluster combat to The Witcher 3's far more evolved combat, but now Elden Ring has taken that top spot and makes The Witcher 3 combat seem only decent in comparison.
Sadly Skyrim has moved down even further to "laughable" and "abysmal"
