Topic: dark souls 2: sotfs question

So I've started playing through Darl Souls 2:SOTFS. Love it, but I have a question about strategy and how others play it. I'm a very methodical, left brain kinda person. I tend to explore every corner and avoid stupid risks, which fits well with the game.

And since you lose progress (e.g. souls) if you die in a place that you can't get your body, I have found myself dragging mobs back to a place I'm confident I can get back to just in case. And then if I'm hurt, I go back to the bonfire and reset. This ends up meaning that in each zone I farm the *** out of it till it stops respawning and there are no mobs between me and the boss. This works amazing, as I don't lose souls, make lots of progress in terms of levels, and boss attempts are pretty easy to get back to. Low risk if you will.

I'm currently level 60 and have cleared the forest of fallen giants, heide's, and the cathedral of blue. I've gotten pretty far into no man's wharf and sold my stuff to gavlan..... But I almost feel like I'm cheating or at least exploiting using this approach.

Do, question: Do other people play this way or do you fight through a whole zone then attempt the boss at lower health and flask uses gone?

For me, the ideal in From Software games is to learn the patterns for enemies and bosses well enough to avoid ever taking damage. I won't comment on how well this goes for me, lol, but over time you do get the hang of things. The mechanic in DS2 where they eventually stop respawning makes the way back more tolerable, but to be honest, having to run back at all is gonna piss me off more than anything the minor enemies can do.
I generally just try to take my time in fights to avoid getting hit and chip away at their health while maintaining some sort of tactical advantage over the boss. Naturally this is harder in small space arena, but for the most part the game accommodates my way of playing.

Killing everything to death is valid strategy, but like with any game, if you play too much, too fast, you'll get burnt out. You might be able to do it for a play through and maybe even to new game+ or higher, but remember that you don't really gain anything other than bragging rights from playing so safely. The game encourages you to die and learn from your mistakes the second, third, fourth, fifth,... time around.
Most importantly, play to have fun. Play how you like, maybe try some new things, but never give up unless you know it doesn't work for you.