I feel similarly. I appear to have put 30 hours into it at this point, but I don't have particularly strong memories of any part of it. It took me several tries to get into it initially. I've always felt like Ori and the Blind Forest (released only two years before Hollow Knight) was a much better game overall, particularly when it came to movement and story execution, yet it comes up far less often in discussions of the genre.

Funny, I'm the opposite; I love Hollow Knight, but I didn't like Ori at all. I think it's because of the visual design; I couldn't tell if that glowing orb is an enemy, a bullet, or a pickup.

Ori is a beautiful game but with so many effects and a tiny character I often found it hard to make out what was going on, the movement is very floaty which lead to combat feeling less tight, and other than a giant owl I don't remember any of the characters now. Hollow Knight's characters and world were a lot more memorable to me.