In my case I like it because of the challenge, the monsters can be fucking hard and there are also strategy elements that you need to learn in order to be good at it like monster's elemental weakness, attack patterns, equipment necessary, weapon's strengths and weakness, etc. So when you finally get into it its pretty rewarding because your success highly depends on actually being good

No you would not have ... LOL 

The controls on the handheld are even clunkier ... 

Positioning your hand as a "claw" wasn't very comfortable on the PSP with MHFU ...

Not really. A flawed gameplay can carry on and keep selling.  I don't know if people consider it part of its charm, but the awful way your character positions himself/herself to attack hinders gameplay. There's no way to simply follow an enemy, which leads to frustration when and attack barely misses because character can't just move a few centimetres to the left.

I mean, I guess fans could argue that's the way it should be, as I'm an inexperienced Monster Hunter player...but that's so archaic it hurts.

Oh and imo anyone who plays it solo is fucking crazy, almost ruined the franchise for me. SO happy I gave it a second chance when I got internet

Don't worry, I feel for you on this series ...

It's not the gameplay that's flawed, it's the technical or mechanical issues that your referring to ... 

There is a way to follow the enemies and that's by marking them with a paintball. I do have an issue with the hit boxes though ...

Done.

But I want to solo plus I've always been a single player/campaign type of gamer as are many ...  

Yeah probably.  Its really unfortunate though.  The VIta has dual analog and could rectify that issue...... -_- For a frranchise that did so well on sony console i really dont understand why multiplatform is not a viable option

Lock on is for noobs though =P

MH3 is very slow at the beginning and it takes a number of hours before the game shines.

In my view, the combat feels a bit like dark souls. The chunkiness, the importance of timing and precision feels similar to the dark souls series. Plus going out to kill large enemies with a buddy is pretty fun.