I agree with this. It should be more like embers from DS3.

I think you have fair points but also not all of them are good.

I don't think the arc are a "boost" as you said. They are an upgrade. The same way ember was a health upgrade in DS3. I don't really think they are thought of "boss only" items. You invest an arc in one, get bonuses, in exchange you have to "git gud". I don't really see why it's not applicable in exploration mode. I don't think they are overpowered to have active all the time.

The Grace thing is probably to simplify. If you could change rune whenever, then what happen when you use an Arc and change Rune ? Do you keep it ? If so that mean you can change your buff on the fly, which then can be overpowered, especially with later healing Great runes.
With the actual system, it's a commitment. You choose a rune, and then can activate it whenever you want.
While i would like the ability to choose which rune is triggered WHEN you use the arc, if would make it very impractical to actually pop an Arc middle fight, because you would ahve at least one dialog box to deal with.

However i completely agree that one other source of Rune arc should be made : either high cost vendor (maybe 30k an arc or something), or maybe bump the loot chance if offline. I'm not sure about crafting, because it's either "costless" or limited in cost (either limited crafting material, or unlimited that can be farmed).

But overall, i think the Rune arc system is not really good at the moment

I dont think theyre intended to be a use in a pinch item, I think its more an incentive to participate online similar to the heal you get when someone up votes a message you've made. I use to play dark souls 3 offline all the time and would end up with tons of embers. I believe as online activity begins to dwindle they will adjust drop rates and make them more available offline.

congrats, every single point was asinine

Bruh on both Mogh and Malenia i constantly got a few hits from finishing them - said screw it I’ll just cheese with rune arc - every single time I was dead before their second phase

maybe it gives you too much confidence so you make more risky plays

Or you get so anxious of not dying that you cannot concentrate fully and commit to bad play decisions, at least that happens to me.

How many games later and they still havent stopped save scumming even on consoles?

Rats give you an unlimited supply somewhat reliably. A person's wants with regard to PVP have nothing to do with their ability to win. Most people will lose when invading since its mostly against 2-3 players.

You chose rats over PVP, you chose low risk. Your rewards reflect your choice.

Ratsmacking seems to have been either horribly nerfed, or the drop rate is much worse than the cheerful "30 minutes farm" advice on the wiki implies. Just spent an hour speedfarming the Rampart Gaol, and it was more like 15 seconds per run not 30: pop Bubble Tea, run into room, spam Gravitas twice. Did this for a solid hour nonstop, maybe 20 seconds tops per cycle: not one single arc. Around 15 Golden Rune (1)s, two Golden Rune (2)s which i think i may have even already had lol, and a couple of fangs. That's it. Bupkis for arcs. Zilch. Nada. The null set of arcs. Which, frankly, is horsehit.

Humanity in ds1 was a giant rat drop

Like responder above - Humanity dropped from all rat enemies. I recall The Depths being a great Humanity farming spot early on.

ember also was dropped by rats