In many games harder difficulty means more, smarter, more aggressive or higher damage enemies. Increased HP is often the worst option

Please don't use common sense on online forums, we don't do that here.

Jokes aside, difficulty settings should be redesigned. How is the question ofcourse. Better AI and complex movesets maybe? Fighting in general is difficult to design around, unless u go for a more puzzle like fights.

Unique mechanics like the Metal Gear delete your saveslot is a prime example of thinking outside the box that we don't see nowadays. Atleast not in AA & AAA.

I do enjoy settings like Ghost of Tsushima, where both the player and enemies die quicker.

I stopped playing on harder difficulty due to it being only about enemy health and damage.

I enjoy a good challenge, hence why I tried hardest difficulty first.

Difficulty can be done right if its done by using more or increasingly complex game mechanics and by improving enemy strategy.

One of the mods that helped fix this used the setting as a way to make things more difficult: enemy factions had strength and weaknesses. For example Animals faction was hard to sneak grab since most of them could break your hold whereas Tiger Claws were experts with Smart weapons and would counter your own smart weaponry. Chrome up dudes whose name eludes me at the moment were very difficult to Quickhack.

Other small adjustments also increased the difficulty like having enemy Netrunners use a wider variety of Quickhacks on the player.