You made some great points too.

Nowdays the games are typically longer and there is no need for the "Die and start over"-thing we have seen in multiple old games.

yeah, this was an attempt to make the game longer and it worked for their generation as one game at the time didn't have much competition. now if you lose a game few times in row you just close it, open Library and choose a new game. you can try the first game tomorrow but it took its time for today.

Most of AAA games don't do difficulty in an unfair way... that makes some of them easy... but you know what? Many of these games have really hard parts, they're just go unnoticed because of the other options to play I mentioned in the post.

I mean, try to play stealth in Assassin Creed.. the game sometimes challenges you to play that way (and gives you more synchronization points when you do that)... but it's hard, time-consuming, and not necessary to complete the game. most people won't play like that. But people who want a challenge? they'll find it very hard!!...

or its just me finding it very hard.. haha...