It is.
You can surely customize the controls, but of course there is no hold option for the lock-on. They never put one in, because they don't understand the older system. Might have had some directional attacks with Z-targeting, like the thrust and upward swing of Devil May Cry and what older Zelda did. DmC and Soulstice players have to double-tap the stick towards the enemy in order to thrust, a recipe for screw-ups, because the former has no lock-on and the latter uses that shitty R3 button. Soulstice also has so much happening on the screen that it's hard to even notice the lock symbol (and know that it's active without the cam also locking behind the character). Attacks set to R1 and R2, as I thought, because the player again can barely see anything and needs as much access to the right stick as possible. You probably switch targets like in Souls as well. Zelda dropped the locking of the camera behind the player while targeting as soon as there was a second stick, in The Wind Waker, because it sucked. I would rather strafe while controlling the cam, switching to the other frontward target with perhaps L3, like in Devil May Cry. Drawback of not being able to choose between left and rightward targets is less than the lack of visibility and locking out of camera controls that causes players to keep falling and backing into walls. If you want to disengage the lock for a look, you can't even do that without potentially turning your back to the enemy.
Checking a video, looks like there's an estus flask equivalent whose animation you have to find windows for and looks like you time the one dodge half the time like in later Souls games. Well, there's a guard button too. I would offer more options, more mobility.
At least there's a jump button.
There is more Souls DNA in gaming now than people like to admit. I don't know why they try to deny it so much, as if Souls is only about recovering your remains, summoning help and being invaded.