RE4 can't be survival horror, because enemies drop ammo and healing items according to your inventory. The essential element of survival horror is to make the player conserve ammo, because it's limited.

I don't think that dying in RE4 did reset the difficulty scaling.

I've played through the whole game without dying once (though I think I had to reset the game at times to keep my clear record), but I didn't notice any difference whatsoever to a playthrough where you die every now and then. I don't think you are talking about the cutscene with all the QTEs, because cutscenes are always the same.

Yeah, I was playing on Pro, because there is no reason to play on normal again. My opinion is that you put the true strength of games to the test on the highest available difficulty setting, so to really see how much survival horror is to be found in any Resident Evil game, you compare them across their hardest mode.

But back to the statement that started this. You said that RE4 doesn't throw ammo and healing items at the player and that is still wrong. The farther you get into the game the more stocked will your inventory be, to the point that you have to sell ammo and healing items, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to pick up anything else anymore. The reasons for this to happen may include the player playing well and upgrading his weapons (so he needs less ammo), but that's something a good game designer would factor in. You don't expect the player to say on his own that he isn't going to upgrade his weapons over the course of the game.

The fact remains that the game adapts to the player's skill within certain boundaries. If you are out of healing items, you can be sure to see an enemy drop one pretty soon. If you have half a dozen with you, you won't get any drops. Same for ammo, if you don't have much with you, enemies start to drop more (obviously doesn't work for the more powerful weapons like the magnum).

In a game like the Resident Evil remake it was very much possible to run completely out of ammo and/or healing items and as a result to have a dead save file (as in it couldn't be completed anymore). That's impossible to happen in Resident Evil 4.

Just save next to the merchant, then sell all of your healing items and play the next section (15 - 20 enemies minimum). Afterwards, load your file and play the same section with all the healing items you got (you should have at least two full heals). Enemies should drop herbs (maybe even a first aid spray) on the first run and no healing items on the second run. It doesn't take long to try this out, so give it a go when you feel like it.