I did something similar with Dark Souls 3 when I was still first getting into Elden Ring. Played through to the Undead Village for comparison but then headed back to Elden Ring where I promptly switched from fidelity to performance mode. =)
That's the tradeoff from Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro to Elden Ring; those world's could be extremely granular, almost story-driven, whereas this one is more like... an ecosystem; it's strength is in quantity, of area, population, etc.
Indeed... though I'm about done with this playthrough (final boss/ending spoilers below):
I beat Radagon and the Elden Beast on the first "try" (I played Ragdollman before but quit when I realized he was likely an end boss). Considering all the cool bosses in this game, I don't think these two were the best for the big finish, though I appreciated Elden Beast's faux-aquatic aspects and what they were going for with him, he still looked kind of goofy (didn't help that my previous fight was against an awesome two-headed Dragonlord =).
Anyway, got and immediately upgraded the Elden Beast's Sword for some sweet rune farming, and now... which ending should I go with, straight Elden Lord or Ranni? I probably should do Ranni because then I don't have to do her quest again (unless I want dual Moon Greatswords =), and it's probably got an achievement tied to it, etc... but I want to be Elden Lord! 
Maybe you get to be Elden Lord anyway, she seemed to support that before she went to outer space or whatever, but I recall in the beginning she was talking about ending everything that came before, which I only agreed to so she'd like me. =)
Oh yeah, any recommendations of must-do stuff, besides get all the Golden Seeds, Sacred Tears etc, before I head to NG+ would be much appreciated.