Level Design is fair, idk about the Lore Point because that sounds more subjective than anything else to me, Hyper Armor is ******* cancer regardless of what game it's in, Dark Souls 3 also had New Game+ shit so I don't know what you mean by that. Dark Souls 2's Originality is fine, I just think the execution could've been way better, you could always reposted with different weapons, Parrying Weapons was more annoying than anything else and the Hitboxes are ******* awful because you can get nailed by the most bullshit of things at the worst of times.
DS2 has:
The best and deepest Lore in the franchise
Greater originality
Greater diversity of builds
Only Souls that adds something in NG+ giving replayability factor
Original mechanics such as Powerstance, Hyper Armor, weak points, parries with any weapon, more rings that contribute to different mechanics in the game, further increasing the fun factor and the desire to return, the SOTFS has the best hitbox of the series post adaptability level 36, best convenants (some that really affect story), aside from Farron Keep it has some of the best level designs in the series in terms of beauty