I don't know what to tell you, but I'm not the only one that feels this way. There are tons of discussions on reddit about it.
well, tons of people must just suck at the game then. it's pretty simply, really. press one button and Geralt does one action. press another button and Geralt does another action.
I've been the game on the second-highest difficulty. My skill at the game is irrelevant to how I feel about the controls.
I'm glad it didn't feel clunky or loose to you, it does to a lot of people. Thankfully the rest of the game is amazing, so it remains my favorite game ever.
Not only did the combat feel clunky like that, but Geralt's movement in general were bad.