I've never been particularly fond of "Hard for the sake of hard" games in the modern era. I just wish they would all go away.
I can buy titles of old on the NES/16-bit systems needed to push back because otherwise they would be completed in between lunch breaks, but as I grow older, my game time becomes far more valuable and less frequent.
I can appreciate that we are in an era where these well oiled machines like From Software's Souls games exist, but I find the punishment of death in them to be excessive in this day. Proper checkpoints exists so that there are previous chunks of gameplay you don't have to repeat since you already did them. This is what all other games do to alleviate repetition. But instead of planting you in a safe spot before the boss so that you can learn from each possible death, they push you back to a segment of climbing your way back up that you just thoroughly cleared before, and you have to do this every time you die to that boss. Oh, and we're gonna cut your maximum health in half until you reach the point where you died for no reason other than to make the trek back potentially harder than the giant boss that took your life.
What is the point of learning from each death against a tough enemy if there's a chance I could die on the way TO said tough enemy, and waste even more of my time and life? Just put me next to the boss so that I can adapt, and win from the struggle against the foe and not struggling on the path to challenge him.
This isn't even just a call for hand holding to be the norm, and I do wish to 'get gud' on my own terms, but I feel that the toughest game we should ever play as a human is life itself, and our luxuries and recreation should not be beating us down any harder than our experiences outside of them potentially could.