Look, I am 49 years old and Metroid is my favorite series, but I love Metroid Dread. I think that exploration is secondary to the action, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This series needed some shaking up similar to the BOTW series and with Mercury Steam working hand in hand with Nintendo there was probably give and take on the whole design process with Nintendo.
The game has plenty of difficulty that is frustrating, but not to the detriment of the series. The frustration came from me fighting certain control options in the game. I believe that if you are willing to learn the controls and don't fight the design choices you will enjoy the game.
I found my brain fighting the controls at first, and wasn't sure if I liked it, but everything is there in the game and in the control design to make it possible to beat even for average gamers. Every time I have failed in this game I realize that it was my fault, and had to strive to get better.
I will give an example. I was choosing not to use this laser aiming ability on a certain boss and found I couldn't aim properly or shoot fast enough without it, so I decided to stop fighting it and learn to use it to the best of my abilities. After I stopped fighting this design choice I defeated the boss. For the most part the controls are fluid and they just work.
Same thing with countering. I initially hated it, but I stopped fighting it and am slowly getting better at it. I am racking up some serious time in this game mostly due to Emmi encounters and boss fights, but I'm ok with this and I am enjoying the game as a whole far more than any other game in the series. From graphics design, control design, to storyline I am enjoying this game immensely.