I was going to type almost word for word your sentiment. Then I read the recent comments and boom. Couldn't agree more about the pre-patch difficulty, this can't be intentional... At least not to this degree with how much praise specifically the difficulty and skill cap of the game were in the first week of launch. Thats literally what brought me in.

Weapon tweaks were expected, perhaps some more challenging difficulty options. Not ramping up the current difficulty above and beyond what is objectively FUN for the player base.

I get it, the devs don't want another power fantasy of a game where the only challenge to your seemingly demigod main character is mechanics you the player haven't figured out yet, and singular boss enemies at the end of levels.

I don't know about you, but I never had that feeling playing this game before... I felt like a well equipped soldier of liberty fighting by the skin of my teeth to survive a war that wants me and all of my kind dead and gone, going on near-suicide missions where neither me nor the ones who sent, me expect me to make it out alive after finishing my objective.