I’m definitely feeling this.
My schedule makes it hard to play online with people I know and I hate playing with randos.
I switched to single player games on easy mode just to be able to make progress and get through some of my huge backlog of games.
It is starting to feel a little forced though.
I get your point but at this point I get more satisfaction simply progressing and completing rather than overcoming harder difficulties. It’s a trade off I guess but I have a huge anount of games I haven’t even played so I guess It’s quantity over quality given my free time and that’s ok, I can change the difficulty back at any time but yes, I’m sure it impacts the enjoyment from the gameplay itself.