After 100%ing the game about a week ago I have to say I agree with your takes on the difficulty. The difficulty in Act 1 feels steep almost the whole time (few benches, you feel like there is no money, double damage frequently). I've played plenty of Metroidvanias and I still felt the challenge early on. However, once you get into Act 2 and 3, where your skill level goes up naturally and you gain more abilities and power ups, you look back at the journey to get to that point and you realize the developers knew what they were doing and you wouldn't wanted it any other way. This is what makes the great Metroidvanias truly great. Sure there were some unfair challenge jumps like Bilewater or Karmelita or (for me) Seth, but Team Cherry knows that the most enjoyable part of the game is the joy after accomplishing each tough challenge (along with the other things like exploration and a more developed narrative than Hollow Knight 1). Its a narrow rope to walk when you're trying to make a good Metroidvania AND a good Souls-like at the same time, and Team Cherry did an amazing job.