I haven’t read the article yet, but easy mode is actually for me.
I like gaming, but almost all my gaming time is compressed into a few months of the year. Even then, it’s not uncommon to have to have a week or longer hiatus between sessions. And when I do sit down to play, I’m lucky if I get the time to have a 1 - 2 hour session. With my situation, games that are long or difficult or that have overly complicated control/button schemes are not a good fit for me.
One game that really stood out for me in terms of being really well designed in this respect was Hades. I thought it did an excellent job of making itself accessible to more casual audiences, while still providing lots of options for dialing up the punishment if that’s your cup of tea. I definitely wish more development teams would put as much effort into making other genres and franchises friendly to more casual players, and I think it’s definitely an achievable goal to do without compromising the experience for more dedicated/advanced players – at least for certain types of games.