I strongly disagree about hard games giving you stress. I laughed so hard when playing the final secret level of Rayman Origins with a friend that my chest and jaw were hurting and I still couldn't stop laughing. That final stage was so relentless but oh! so damn amazing and gratifying.
You also have to take in consideration that your idea of fun isn't exactly shared with everyone else. I know people that only play "hard" games, otherwise they get bored with cake in the walk kind of games, or those that pose zero challenge (like some visual novels, or short action/adventure games with locked highest difficulty from the get go).
After seeing the incredible success of Mighty No. 9 in kickstarter, "Mega Man" is far from dead. It's not the gamers fault there, but Capcom's, who denied us a new entry. In fact, quoting Mega Man is counterproductive to your arguments. And as someone else said here, Mega Man isn't that hard. Realizing what the bosses are going to do is part of the game's charms.
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There are so many things I disagree with your OP that I don't even know where to begin, really, outside of what I've already said. No water levels? Why not? Water "levels" are the easiest thing to do in The Last of Us, so you've got another example got wrong. (Guess you're taking The Legend of Zelda as an example, still, water levels aren't inherently hard). Boss fight shorts? Why? Resident Evil 5's final boss was a relatively long affair and it wasn't hard per se. It was more for the spectacle with one of the franchise's most defining villains. Add an easy mode? I guess I could agree with that one on a certain extent (looking at you, Catherine). Lots of checkpoints? Why no manually save whenever you need? Not too many enemies? Play a musou game. There's like a bazillion enemies on screen that fall prey of your blade without much of a challenge.
