Difficulty scales have always been a crux that the players have had to deal with. In FPS games the NPCs instantly know where you are and their bullets one shot, in RPG games usually the players output damage is reduced, in RTS games the enemy faction has split second reactions to anything that happens on the battlefield even in the fog of war.
Usually developers just make the harder difficulties impossible to have fun playing and say 'Well it's difficult isn't it?'. But there are some games that tweak the scales just right and those are the games that should be applauded.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it was fun reading!