Heck Classic mode seems harder than tactition mode in the first game :P
Hahaha.
On the Easy mode topic, it is true that games now try to not shove in the player's face, easy mode nor even hard mode.
Most players will choose normal simply because the majority think they should be good enough to play the game as it is meant to be (playing in easy doesn't always make you feel you experience the game as it should) and they don't always think they are good enough or spend enough time to play in hard mode.
The worst case if the game telling you: "Hey you died, do you want to try again in EASY". Implying you are clearly not good enough. Pretty insulting.
The worst part of the difficulty level is you don't even know what difficulty level you want unless you already know the game so what will a new player choose ? Most of the time Normal mode but that's not always the good choice.
I think the player should be asked the difficulty after having played a bit to have a sense of the game. Or have an option to have a trial ground.