>>1995218That's a very reductionist way of looking at it.
The appeal comes from having to pay attention to how the monster moves and reacting accordingly as there are few windows to attack without being interrupted (outside of the faster-moving weapons). Each monster has a gimmick to it like poison attacks, tail moves, hardened body parts, inflicts status effects, flies around everywhere being an annoying piece of shit fuck you rathalos, and so on to keep in mind for each hunt. Successfully playing around the monster's quirks and laying the smackdown on them is satisfying, and the equipment progression encourages you to keep throwing yourself at the monsters and learn their quirks instead of a one-and-done deal. The monsters also have a number of breakable parts that give extra rewards at the end of the quest, which serve as little sub-goals while doing the main task of killing the thing.
More recently with World/Rise, is the emphasis on using endemic life to the player's advantage . They basically give mini bonuses or inflict status effects on the monsters for free and are a good thing to keep an eye out for as the monster moves around the map.
At the end of the day it's smacking a thing with another thing until it dies, but it's satisfying.