Completely valid. I also feel the time constraint. I have a job but I've been wanting to work on art more to hopefully use it as a job, and between that and personal life it's been hard to play the game. Hopefully, you can find enjoyment in the game all the same!

Im definitely an outlier. Ive purposely gone out of my way to find the most challenging characters/difficulties for game options and I still do. Ive noticed a lot of people in a similar boat as you, who were expecting hard but not like this. Maybe team cherry will put out new difficulty options

I've been personally enjoying the difficulty spike, but that's probably a me thing. I've always enjoyed games with a high difficulty ceiling, so it's felt really rewarding after a strenuous boss fight. I do get that it must be frustrating for more a casual play-through though

It was so fun to work on. I'm so glad ya love it!