They’re patching out their unwitting solution to early difficulty level for less skilled players? I am so glad now that I decided not to buy this game at launch. It’s clearly intended for the “Souls” audience that relishes repeated attempts and high difficulty. I suppose the lack of mid-run checkpoint saves also indicates that.
I guess there may be some marketing strategy to this? Lure in the hardcore, skilled players with a reputation for difficulty and eliteness. Then, when those numbers taper off, release a patch with difficulty adjustments / more save points to appeal to the more casual. Isn’t that what Remedy did with Control? And it worked, from what I can tell. They had multiple bumps of interest from different audiences.