kinda in love with that machine pistol

*If they wanted to add an easy mode that would be really cool of them though

Y'know, I guess I'm not really torn at all.
My opinion is just:
Create a base experience, and then, if you can, try to watch out for ways that a player might be barred from that experience and then create options that players can alter to remove those bars if they have a need to.

Maybe it wasn't meant to have an easy mode, but I'd wager the game also wasn't meant to make a player quit because they were flat-out unable to progress despite their best efforts.
And do you know what would prevent that outcome?

An easy mode.

I know creating accessibility and difficulty options takes work, and so understand if they're not implemented on the basis of not having the resources time and/or energy to do it.
But what I don't like is that some people still say things like "The game wasn't meant to have an easy mode"

So, then, I suppose we could just leave it at: "Well, then certain games just aren't for those people."
But I think it's sad that those games and experiences COULD be for those people if only the options existed to be toggled and changed to allow it.

It feels like it comes back to a misguided idea that everyone is starting from equal footing, but in reality that just isn't the case. People just don't have the same reflexes across the board: You can use averages all you want, but there will be someone who falls below that.

It seems very easy for someone who lands within the prerequisite skill-window for a game to say "well, the point of the game is to die and learn and overcome" when "overcoming" for them meant only a dozen attempts at a boss and not, say, a hundred attempts, or even two hundred.

Is it so important all players have the exact same experience?
Or is it more important that all players have the intended experience?
I would imagine the intended experience for most games is not for a player to be stopped dead in their tracks forever at the 3rd boss.