Finally resuming this a bit, after being continuously reminded how much I don't like playing other modern games now.
PS5 NG+: Basically done with the plat, just need to get Lichdragon done and make sure I don't miss anything for that. I'll go ahead and finish NG+ as well, cause I'm like 60% through the main quest anyway. NG+ is much shorter than NG, and is definitely lacking most of the mystique. Map is filled in and everything's just so...easy. Plus I'm using sorcery now and can pretty much gimp any fight with that, the rare times I run into any problems.
PS4 NG: Started a Samurai up. Finding it much easier than my PS5 run, either because Samurai > Wretch or because I'm just way better and know my way around. Surprised that PS4 version doesn't look that much worse than PS5 and even the framerate seems good. Get the impression it's like 48 while PS5 is 60. I don't think it's 30. Only times where it really feels deficient visually is when I look at trees (they look much more blobby rather than having a mass of clearly-defined leaves). The light effects are also far inferior to PS5 without ray-tracing.
Regardless, I got a second Uchi and I've just started leveling those up. Gotta figure out what ashes I need to make one of them frostbite, so that the powerstance can inflict both bleed and frostbite. I guess making the other one a Blood Uchi would also increase the blood effect?
Also slew the dragon in Caelid and leveled Vigor up like 20 points right out of the gate, then defeated Margit without much stress. Next is Godrick, who gave me a lot of grief in the first playthrough. Will be interesting to fight him without summoning help this time or using a shield.