I dunno, the things you list sound like the kind of iterative changes many game sequels employ. The core mechanics of both games are very, very similar, down to the way that weapons are upgraded/scale with stats, the use of a single resource for leveling and purchasing items and player death involving many of the same consequences between both games (loss of souls that can be retrieved on a subsequent life, inability to access online features, etc.). The combat is nearly identical between the two games outside of minor balance tweaks.
The games even share the same director, so one could argue that whatever you feel was lost between the two games is purely your imagining because the creator himself saw fit to change these things. I'd personally argue that Dark Souls 2 will be less of a direct sequel than Dark Souls was to Demon's, since Hidetaka Miyazaki isn't working on it.
