They turned something that was based on player ability, you time your block right you get rewarded and it felt great.

to another tedious grind to always have the best possible HP food to do the things you did before.

Before If I played my cards right I could take on Trolls early game and it was a way to progress into Troll gear before then moving to the Swamp for fighting Dregs.

Now even with a bone shield I got clapped and could not stagger the Troll with a perfectly timed block but furthermore took a lot of damage even with the timed block. Not sure where you got your info from but maybe he had later game HP food stacked to increase his blocking capability. Which in itself is kind of a dumb mechanic (have hp will block?) /facepalm

I could kill at Troll at ease with a bow I crafted minutes into the game and wood arrows, So our ability to block them in the past did not seem op it just felt good, and when you're in tight quarters like crypts in the swamp blocking melee mobs with timed blocks also felt great.

Now you have some messed up system to get in the way of something that was intuitive...

This update took away far more than it gave imo.