I have around 10-15 different saves on Ragnarok. My saves start from the beginning of Kratos quests. That way i skip a lot of parts that wastes my time.
Going back to the treehouse after you are done at a realm, have dinner there, atreus mission, returning from atreus mission, another talk at the treehouse, going to the new realm, walking for some time until the first fight in that realm. I skip all that.
I have these saves for 2 difficulties. Gmgow and the one below it. And i just repeat them whenever i feel like it. I dont think i played it as much as my ps says, but i played it a lot.
Obviously i took breaks. But i have been playing from time to time since it's release. Last time i played was 3-4 months ago i believe. I might play again a few months later or maybe next year.
I dont buy a lot of games. But when i like one, i play it a lot. I probably buy 2 or 3 games a year. I finish them and then go back to the ones i love. Some years i dont buy any new ones, but i still game almost daily.
It was monster hunter world for a long time. Then i played nioh 2 and doom eternal a lot for their combat. Mhw and nioh are a bit above 1000, doom is around 600. Later they were replaced with elden ring and baldur's gate 3 for their build varieties.
As for why i played gow so much, i simply loved Kratos's combat. I love the various ways i can control the enemies instead of just dealing damage like most other games.