While I still don't get why anyone would want to play a platformer, combat game or FPS with zero challenge....After 250 hours of Diablo 4 and dozens of hours in Vampire survivors I'm not sure a game needs difficulty to be fun like you said. These two games quiet literally can play themselves... well, Diablo 4 takes a bit more effort cause you have dungeon objectives. Both are some of the most fun I've had in the last two years and both are the easiest games I've ever played in my life. All you do Vampire survivors is move to pick up EXP and choose your weapons and buffs on leveling up which automatically work themselves. After 12 minutes or so into a run you can set things up well enough to put the controller down and I shit you not, you'll still be having fun while your character clears enemies by themselves, it's designed to be that dopamine heavy. 

Alas, I have to disagree. I'd rather play the near impossible game (provided that it's far better than the easy one) and suffer through getting good enough to play it so I can start enjoying it. Figured this out with Bloodborne in 2015 and have never looked back, some juice is worth the squeeze. 

Very important. If it's balanced, if it's done perfectly, it can make a good game legendary. If it's the opposite, it can make a good game unplayable, imo. Nothing worse than unbalanced difficulty.

Interestingly, I don't have any woes regarding difficulty settings in all in most games because depending on the kind of game I'm experiencing, I seek different experiences, therefore different difficulties will ensue.

If given the choice I always go through normal difficulty mode for any game since I consider this is the intended experience to anyone willing to go through a fair challenge given any circumstances.

Some games don't have difficulty modes but do balance out their challenges through other means with increasingly tougher enemies with tougher patterns, boss gauntlets, limited health pool, etc ...
But it is something you seek for yourself at this point.

Anyway, nothing better than chilling with a Kirby throughout most of it and being unable to complete the hard-ass True Arena lol.

Depends on the game. For story focused ones it doesn't have as much impact but for something like a platformer it's a big deal. Celeste for example wouldn't have been as compelling and satisfying as it was if it was easy. For something like Hollow Knight many of its most memorable boss fights are as memorable as they are in large part due to the challenge.

Also I completely agree with the preferring one set difficulty part. My ideal scenario is something like HK that doesn't start of that tricky but continually ramps up over time and eventually gets to a point where its hardest optional challenges are so hard not even 0.1% of players will be able to do them. People like me can enjoy doing most of the hardest stuff but stop when they feel like they've reached their limit while the masochists who'll spend dozens or even hundreds of hours practicing the game and attempting those challenges can become gods at it and complete absolutely everything. Most of the game giving a nice challenge but being manageable for most gamers with at least some experience while having super hard optional challenges for the best of the best to challenge themselves is the sweet spot I'd say.

>provided it's far better than the easy one

This is why I mentioned "two games that are similar" - no difference in the quality or type of game, aside from the difficulty. 

When I say a game that is borderline impossible, I don't mean anything like the Souls games. I would even argue that most of the Souls games actually get pretty easy when you get into them. I mean take difficulty to the absolute extreme to the point where a game is completely unplayable.

You're right about the easier part. The easier side of things is also tricky. There's different ways to make something engaging. Difficulty is one way. Making a great story is another. 

Not important.

As long as the gameplay is great or if its story focused like a VN , the story needs to be great.