Steam

Most Souls-likes are slow and methodical, if that's not your thing you probably won't have fun with any of these except Sekiro. I would not call the official ones (Dark Souls, Elden Ring, ...) clunky but many of the "copies" certainly can be.

but it felt like Sekiro was wasting my time in comparison because I had to GET to the boss again for each attempt. The grunts didn't pose enough of a challenge to be interesting, just enough to slow me down.

You can rush past most enemies on your way to the boss and the difficult ones usually have a respawn point close but this is a problem with many From games. I bounced off Dark Souls 1 and Sekiro for similar reasons the first time I played them.

If you enjoy the boss fights you might enjoy Kannagi Usagi? It's essentially a carbon copy of the Sekiro bosses in a boss rush mode and with an anime skin. I have seen even the biggest Sekiro haters enjoy that one. Also, it's free and short. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2551500/__KANNAGI_USAGI/