Another theory (I know T_T)
Since we know that we can make sacrifices and create Bonfires as pictured here:
Maybe, just maybe, instead of being located in pre-determined places they are going to give you a number of them during the story and you should use them carefully because if you use them all you then could be forced to traverse large sections of the map without bonfires in between...
This could solve the paradigm that some people hate that bonfires are too close to each other, that some are too close to the boss room and so on and on since with this system you could choose where to use them and also add a layer of survival horror like the save system of Resident Evil.