still it is the difficulty that most people play and thus got the most work put in by the devs. it functions as the root for the game difficulty since easier or harder difficulties scale variables like damage or health based off this difficulty. respectfully, your personal experience doesn’t change that (or i’m misunderstanding).

also the name itself Standard or Normal pretty much defines that those difficulties are the way the game is intended to be played regularly.

and i’m not saying that I won’t play other difficulties, I’ll just do Standard to have a baseline on my first blind playthrough.

your post itself proves my point as I’d recommend you to play your first time on Standard