It was frustrating at times because I had to change my gameplan when I tried survivor. While I was playing or the 2nd hardest difficulty I got used to just running around and wasting my supplies. I never felt a sense of urgency on Hard mode.

When I started Survivor mode which is the hardest difficulty, I immediately realized that I couldn't be so wasteful with my ammo or molotovs. Survivor mode really forced me to think like a survivor, to ration my supplies. I only allowed myself to use a certain amount of bullets for each encounter because having already completed the game I knew I would need them for my next encounters. I love that Survivor mode made me do that, if I felt that I used too much ammo I resorted to stealth only. The bow became my best friend because it was an easy way to take out opponents silently with one shot.

I highly reccomend trying the game on Survivor mode, it's a very tense, realistic experience.

I concur, Survival mode is the way to go.  I was conflicted on whether to play hard + or survival, I chose survival and can confirm that thats the right way to go.

My first playthru on hard lasted 21 hrs and 15 min, I searched almost complusively for ammo and supplies the whole time.  I still missed a ton of the collectables.  I'm about 40% of the way thru survival and am finding lots of stuff I missed.  Playing without listen mode makes the game better in my opinion.