So, let's get one thing straight here. Bayo 2 is the worst, bayo 1 is the baseline, bayo 3 is the best. Obviously you are able to have your own opinions. You can debate that in the comments. I'd like to explain my side, first, though.

In bayo 1 and 2, you had two weapons. Hand weapons and feet weapons. One was active when you punched, the other was active when you kicked, with the kicks being slower but stronger than punches. That is unchanged in the first two, but oh the combat is so different. Bayo 1 has the better combat of the first two. The angels make their attacks obvious. There's always several frames, sometimes even several seconds, of animation leading up to an attack. It's sometimes harder to witchtime because you accidentally avoided it too early, and that is undoubtedly intentional as nonstop climax gets rid of witchtime. This leads to every death feeling like it's your fault. That you missed something. There are many frames, seconds even, of visual signals, and audio signals are always there warning you of an attack, like a literal trumpet. They make the attacks obvious so that when you're hit, you can't blame the game. The game gave you every warning. With that being said, the enemies have just enough health so that you feel a need to learn combos, as they usually lead to stronger and stronger attacks. Some even lead to a wicked weave. In bayo 2, they completely trade that off for weak enemies with unpredictable attacks. The attacks are fast with few frames between attacks if any. The issue really shines when you go back to vigrid and fight the original angels with their more predictable attacks. I have no reason to learn combos, though, because my attacks stun enemies anyways, except the random times they don't. And that leads to another issue. Every weapon in 2 is a sword. In 1, every weapon was... anything. Ranging from swords to missile launchers, it was anything. The only thing is it was a bit more grounded in reality than the future sequels, which doesn't really matter. In 2, the entire game is pressing a and b randomly hoping an enemy dies, unless a super powerful attack you cannot predict hits you and almost kills you. That will happen most of the time. Bayo 3 ends up somewhat ditching the original combat gimmick, but I say gimmick for a reason. It... oddly works better without it in 3, while it feels almost exactly like 1 in combat. The issue is that in 1, everything was balanced around bayonetta. In 2, bayonetta got an ability called the umbran climax. This makes every attack a wicked weave, and heals you. Now everything is balanced to that, and not you. This hugely powerful attack that you aren't able to do most of the time. This leads to chip damaging. Combos don't help, either. It's just punching a brick wall until you can get a wrecking ball. In bayo 3, the combat loops back to 1. The demon slaves are even balanced to you, making them slow and leaving you vulnerable.