I always felt like we remember the older games to be more difficult than they actually were because we were younger. I don't really have any trouble with GSC now that I'm older and actually know how to play.

I think the debate here is that if the game wasn't so easy on the player mechanically, leveling the game faster wouldn't matter. Again, my example is SMT. Pokemon is easy because the player has more freedom and tools than most NPCs. It's why playing against another player is so difficult.

If every NPC could switch to counter your Pokémon, switch when they killed your pokemon knowing what pokemon you were about to send out, had access to every healing item you have and used them as often as you do, built teams better, etc, like you can the game would be much harder regardless of grinding.

Genuinely, try and play an entire Pokemon game on Set without using items during battle and without switching your pokemon during battle. Players have an extremely unfair advantage that has nothing to do with levels