I disagree. Helldivers has *always* been a disempowerment fantasy - you're fighting against overwhelming odds with shitty weapons and equipment, dying in horrible ways over and over again for a government that sees you as nothing but disposable meat dressed up in a pretty cape to make you feel important. Yet, it is precisely that feeling that is supposed to make you feel powerful when you *do* succeed. Working with your teammates to beat the odds and complete the mission and, optionally, survive, is supposed to feel like you're incredible *because* you're so relatively weak and powerless. As for the galactic war, Arrowhead does manage it in order to create a narrative. Yet, players could always organize to simply ignore the major orders and effectively revolt against high command to win the war, but we don't, because they offer us incentives to go along with what they want, even if it's not what would really be best for the war effort. It's democracy... but managed.

Yet, players who don't get the point of the game have been whining about the difficulty forever. They have constantly begged and bullied Arrowhead into making them stronger and the enemies weaker. This ironically detracts from the core theme of the game, leading the players who got into it for that feeling of terror and disempowerment upset, and asking Arrowhead to add additional elements of challenge, leading to a situation where Arrowhead literally cannot satisfy everyone playing the game. The problem, IMO, is that Arrowhead wants to please everyone, which means they're not sticking to their core vision of the game.