Dark Souls 3: what in the heck is going on with poise and physical defense?

To fill you in: in Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, poise is a stat affecting stagger limits.

Of these, poise and physical defense are among the most puzzling.

But in general PvE, your physical defense does practically jack for your survivability.) This isn’t really news to fervent Dark Souls 3 fans, as it has been openly discussed everywhere they gather since well before the RPG’s official launch.