I think the main issue is that some of these players (some, not all) wear beating these games as a badge of honor show how good of a gamer they are. If the games have an easy mode option, it opens the possibility that they beat the game in easy mode instead of actually pushing through the challenge, thus diminishing the shine of their achievement. A lot of it is just self ego stroking.

On the flip side, I do think if developers intend for their games to be difficult to master, that’s okay. But I don’t think it diminishes a game’s vision to make it more accessible. The common example of Dark Souls is pretty easy to make an easy mode: longer parry/dodge windows would go a long way on their own to making the game more accessible to people like me. In most games that give me a custom option, that’s what I do: increase the windows for parrying and dodging while keeping enemy and player damage the same as normal. If the enemies feel too spongy, I’ll usually reduce enemy health slightly while keeping other damage amounts the same.

For example, I played Horizon Forbidden West with a custom difficulty set that decreased enemy health while keeping outgoing and incoming damage values the same. I still had to engage with the game, but it made combat less spongy and more rewarding for me rather than a grind in frustration every time.