This was never intended to be punishing or be dark souls. They have a small enough customer base as it is, they need to the games to be as inviting as possible. Its never going to be as hard as hard core gamers want it, ever, the best we can get is Mods like the unfair difficulty by Rhydian.
Not one person ever said anything about make it hard on easy or normal and most are happy with just adding another. IMO if you want a classic to be talked and played for a decade you do want a pretty challenging setting. If they never make a change it was still a great game, but like other games of theirs, they do make enhanced versions, a little more polish, this game can still be improved upon like any. It is a hit, it is a great game as-is.
