There are significant arguments about expecting a player to choose to handicap themselves and make decisions that are not in their moment-to-moment interest VS forcing limits on the player.
There is a balance, but when people just say "you don't have to choose to use the easy option" they are not showing much understanding in human psychology with game design.
Go look at the Destiny controversy about weapon sunsetting: people want to use the same gun for 4 years and expect people to just "choose" to not use the best option which happens to be 4 years old and will forever impact game design and balance. The Dark Souls Easy Mode argument has already been made in this thread.
