Lovely Mixture said:
I feel it's an issue of balance.
Either it's all too soft and fancy or it's all too dark.
Berserk and Dark Souls do it right. Tolkien essentially did it right. Haven't tried Fire and Ice yet.
Take the classic tale of a princess imprisoned in a tower until a handsome prince comes by and rescues her.
When you read a story where the prince catches dysentery on his way and dies, and the princess dies alone and unloved, you think it's refreshing and admire how it tears down established tropes.
The second time it happens, you're still satisfied, but slightly disturbed that the plot twist is exactly the same and therefore doesn't twist the plot much.
The third time it happens, you've been able to tell it will happen 50 pages ago, when the princess was first mentioned.
The fourth time it happens, you wish the author stopped "tearing down the established tropes" and wrote a fucking happy ending for once.
The fifth time it happens, you wonder why you keep reading something this predictable.
The sixth time it happens, you realize you're reading
A Song of Ice & Fire.
Now don't get me wrong, the series is well-written, has rather good characters and neat worldbuilding. I've read all the books and will read the next one, too. But it uses more "Dark Ages" stereotypes than 19th-century French philosophers and demonstrates an obsession with making everything darker and more cynical that just makes the series just as predictable as dime novel high fantasy romps.
I find the Kingkiller Chronicle much better rounded in that respect. It uses the established tropes and only attacks a few of them now and then, which makes it all the more effective. It has its downsides, but overall I think it hits the sweet spot between "high" and "dark" fantasy that you're looking for.