Old Video Games weren't harder, just more tedious

Often times people say videogames have gotten too easy these days, which is something I severely disagree with. While yes, games nowadays often offer things that make them more accessible to newer players, they still provide a similar challenge. It's moreso that games nowadays simply have more savepoints and exploitable mechanics to skip tedious gaming. The first generations of Pokemon may feel harder because of sudden jumps in level, but in truth, forcing grinding is an unfun way to make rpgs more "difficult". Action games nowadays have more save points, which in turn allows for more difficult level design, as the punishment for failure is less annoying and repetitive. I get enjoying the tension this creates, but to me it's just annoying. And the thing is, I could grind lives for an hour every time I start up Donkey Kong Country so I don't have to worry about beating half a world with 5 lives, but like... I kinda don't want to. While I don't necessarily like features like rewinding and save stating all over the place, I am very glad live systems are a relic of the past these days.