Even with that said they've been dumbing it down more with every passing title. The climbing glove upgrade is gone, needed to jump to reach higher handholds is gone, wall jumps are barely used anywhere, scanning for climbing routes is pretty much gone. The thrill of climbing a viewpoint is totally absent for the more recent games because its become SO automated, especially in Syndicate where you literally have a Batman grappling hook to launch yourself around the city. And I say this as a big fan of Syndicate. Climbing down has gotten even worse, where the fear of falling (which was only ever barely there) has been reduced to nothing thanks to an (admittedly cool) "parkour down" button that guides you all the way to the bottom mindlessly.
Now I get there has to be a balance between speed, cool factor, and ease of use because this isn't a platformer, and the Assassins are supposed to be monkeys, but when everything is so automated, there's no sense of getting better or thrill in reaching the top of structures. There's no need to time button presses, no need to look at anything. Very little involvement. It would be much more interesting if they found a middle ground between the fluid "means to an end" flashiness and more technical, precision based mechanics.