This sounds weird. It seems there's a group that want balance and more hard and there's a group that love how it's used to be previously. So Larian upset the masses simply by listening to one group of people that love the harder game. Correct me if i'm wrong.
I actually wouldn't mind the game harder than it is now, I just think that the two ways that are getting the hate are very bad ways to do it. I'd be happy to see smarter AI, weaker equipment, and less free gold lying about. But the resistance cap seems to be a "because reasons" and doesn't feel natural in a game where enemies regularly absorb things and where crafting allows you to throw your actual number up to 200. In City of Heroes, an MMO I played religiously for years, there were resistance caps- between 75 and 90 depending on your specific class- but getting to these caps was a chore. With the exception of the elemental defense power sets which always wound up at max to that element, you really had to finesse your build and invest to hit the caps. In this game, we just unceremoniously crash into the cap. I don't feel like I was given a "harder game" by having a cap put in. I feel like I was robbed of 120% fire resistance, 25% Water resistance, 20% air resistance, and 30% Earth resistance. These are things I purchased/obtained in character that don't work because random ceiling, not because any given aspect is now less than it was before.
And the followers thing is just... inconvenient. It denies customization but it only ups the difficulty if you want to change your followers later. The game shouldn't punish you for wanting to attempt new things.
That said, my partner probably /would/ mind a difficulty spike. While my Man At Arms was very hard to hurt before, her mage had to struggle hard to get that 120% fire resist to be immune to fire even when burning, and in larger fights she finds herself often having trouble staying alive because I just cannot draw all the aggro. Summons help, but spellcasting enemies are vicious to those who aren't Armor-Plated Men-At-Arms. We only unlocked the ability for her to stand in fire patches to heal and keep foes away recently, and it's definitely helpful and interesting.
So yeah, you can't please everyone, but increased difficulty that feels organic works much, much better than increased difficulty that's obviously just the game mechanics holding you back, and limiting player choice generally makes things less fun.
