I feel like...the monster is fast, and I am slow. If we were both slow thats a rythym I could get into easily. If we were both fast, same thing. If he was slow and I was fast, well, that would be easy. But I keep finding that I'm halfway through an attack animation and he dashes away leaving me to swing at empty ground.
Part of the game is learning how each weapon handles and how eat monster moves. So the "rhythm" you mention is more a rhythm of timing and anticipation. It involves learning when to exploit openings for attacks, dodge and always when to withdraw and reposition. So yeah, it's fun when you learn these things and get revel in your accomplishments.
That's a big plus for me, knowing that I've actually improved my skill and to see that reflected in the hunt.
Okay another series quirk I need explained: the non-contiguous zones. Obviously there may be hardware reasons for the loading screens, but I've heard people call it a design decision before. Why? Because all its doing for me now is being really annoying when either a monster attack or my own attack animation knocks me over the invisible line.
The breaking up of the zones, to the extent that they are now, is probably not needed from a technical level. But I'm guessing that originally, they aided in the design of the game, especially the monster AIs. That said, there are pros and cons to the current zone system. They could change it with some work to the AI, but this is what we have right now. Removing the borders without changing the AI would create a different set of issues.
The long and short of it is that you should avoid fighting a monster near a zone border until you know what you are doing very well. Just lead it back into an open space.