Tl;dr Stories that don't know what Grimdark is, whether they're trying to aspire to the false ideal or trying to reject it.
Grimdark doesn't mean 'take the the most dystopic parts of Warhammer 40k lore recaps and write them into your novel'. I call these novels Fakedarks, since they weren't actually intending to engage with the genre as a genre, they only wanted a dark setting.
It means 'I'm using a dark, gritty, and bleak tone to accentuate the existing messages and themes'.
Similarly, I've encountered several stories in my time that are like anti-fakedarks, wherein the notion of something being gritty or bleak is anathema and immersion irreparably suffers once I realize the story thinks that way.
There's a lot of really interesting space to write in within the context of true Grimdark, that's why people fall in love with Grimdark stories, and trying to shy away from any amount of grit or bleakness makes a story look like it isn't interested in exploring its own ideas.
