Alright gonna try my best to make a counter point as you did put forth quite a bit of effort making that post I'm gonna try and address each topic you bring up.
1. Honestly I am with you on the topic of tropical freeze a bit as I found the game to be difficult at parts cause I couldn't quite grasp the levels gimmick correctly and it would make me feel as if the developers were laughing at me since I couldn't pass some challenges. Now having said that I feel like Donkey kong might have been a somewhat bad choice as a topic to have this discussion on as the game is very aware of its own difficulty level and offers you a choice of just plain skipping levels if you die enough to avoid frustration. Now before anyone comes in and says "BUT THAT'S THE LOSERS WAY OUT CANT LET THE GAEMZ PLAY THEMSELVES" it isn't it's just offering you the choice of skipping a level that you may find frustrating and giving you the chance to see the rest of the game. I feel like this should have been a mechanic you took advantage of during your play through as it would have eliminated a lot of stress on those levels you just cant beat. Unless you couldn't find a level you actually did enjoy in which case ya trash that shit.
2. See I feel like this is where the Megaman community fails to explain why they enjoy it as much as they do and why they find it easy. See classic Megaman is designed around the idea that you will remember the stages layout where the enemies are placed and what each one does. It's a game more or less built for people to enjoy beating multiple times as the first play through will be the hardest and subsequent play through will become easier and easier with the more and more knowledge you acquire with each play through. Which is something most megaman fans remember to explain to people but the hardcore Megaman fans have been playing for decades and forget how difficult peoples first Megaman can be regardless of the game. Hopefully that clears up Megaman for you and I'm not asking for you to give it another chance just to understand why people like Megaman games.
3. this point will more or less be discussing your points on Mario, the point of buying video games, your buying of franchises, and your stance on challenging games. Guess I will start with the only real thing I genuinely don't agree with in your post and that is the point of video games. Look man i get that you genuinely hate hard games but you really cant boldly declare "difficulty makes the whole point of video games the opposite" as a fact when that wasn't the point of them. Since from a factual stand point it is wrong as video games exist to make money. Secondly some games choose give the player a sense of satisfaction through challenges and difficulty as they want to make you feel like you have grown as a player since the first time you booted up the game by the time you hit the credits. I actually have to disagree with the Mario statement cause I've never been able to beat SMB 3 or world. Thirdly yes challenging things are fun some people enjoy having their asses handed to them and being told try again.
4. Gonna devote this section to what I feel are the logical fallacy with your argument. lets just adresses this right now yes stress can kill you but stress from a video game alone will not kill you. Unless you have other outside influences happening like stress from life in general. Now with that out of the way lets talk about how difficulty affects game franchises. No donkey kong tropical freeze and NSMBU did not suffer lesser sales because of their difficulty they suffered lesser sales because the wii u is one of the worst selling nintendo consoles of all time and these games dont have nearly as large of a pool of people to sell to because of that. Finally and I cant belive I have to say this Megaman did not die because his games were too difficult they died because franchise fatigue had kicked in for him during the ps2 era and people just didn't want any more Megaman for a while.
5. Finally I find most of your solutions to be resonable expecations from games only real tweaks id make are the checkpoint bit add things like that to the easy mode to better help doferentiate the difficulties. Also yes the water level complaint is valid I can count on one freaking hand how many times I played a well done water level in a fun not horrible way.
Any way mate sorry if at times this long ass post seems not focused or some of the counter points none sensical since it's currently 4 in the morning from where I am typing. Just point out any inconsistency you (not just Nintation but anyone else reading this) find in my post and tell me and I would be happy to correct it and continue a discussion from that point on. I will say though outside of a few choice points I find we do agree alot in terms of what we expect out of a game when we buy it. Now hopefully I conveyed that shit in my post cause its late and I have no energy to read over my post again to fix it.
